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"We understand the concerns expressed about privacy in relation to the deployment of body scanners. It is vital that staff are properly trained, and we are developing a code of practice to ensure these concerns are properly taken into account," the spokesperson said.
"Existing safeguards also mean that those operating the scanners are separated from the device, so that they are unable to see the person to whom the image relates, and these anonymous images are deleted immediately," he said.
Privacy campaigners have said images created by the machines are so graphic that they amount to "virtual strip-searching" and have called for safeguards to protect the privacy of passengers involved.
British lawmakers are now having to exempt under-18s from the scans or face the delay of introducing new legislation to ensure airport security staff do not commit offences under child pornography laws.
They also face demands from civil liberties groups for safeguards to ensure that images from the 80,000-pound scanners, including those of celebrities, do not end up on the internet.
The Department for Transport said the "child porn" problem was among "legal and operational issues" now under discussion in Government after Prime Minister Gordon Brown's announcement on Sunday that he wanted to see their "gradual" introduction at Heathrow and other British airports.
A 12-month trial of scanners at Manchester airport which revealed naked images of passengers including their genitalia and breast enlargements, only went ahead last month after under-18s were exempted.
The decision followed a warning from Terri Dowty, of Action for Rights of Children, that the scanners could breach the Protection of Children Act 1978, under which it is illegal to create an indecent image or a "pseudo-image" of a child.
Dowty told 'The Guardian' she had raised concerns with the Metropolitan police five years ago over plans to use similar scanners in an anti-knife campaign, and when the Department for Transport began a similar trial in 2006 on the Heathrow Express rail service from Paddington station.
Some countries, led by the US, have announced additional security measures at airports since a Nigerian man was charged with trying to blow up a US-bound jet on December 25.
23-year-old Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab reportedly confessed to being trained by an Al-Qaeda bombmaker in Yemen for the suicide mission on the Northwest Airlines flight from Amsterdam to Detroit.
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