For those of you who don’t want your “junk” touched by TSA screeners, the head of the TSA wants to remind you that “the threats are real.”

Transportation Security Administration head John Pistole tells All Things Considered today that the goal is to find the best balance between security and privacy.

“Reasonable people can disagree,” he says. “But in the final analysis everyone wants to be safe and secure on that flight.”

Pistole addresses an issue that has enraged some parents: pat-downs of kids. It sounds like the TSA recognizes there is some room for improvement here.

Pistole tells ATC’s Melissa Block:

We did not do frankly a very good job of communicating initially that there would be an exemption, if you will, from the thorough pat-down for children 12 and under. That was under review when the policy came out, and so we have clarified that. It does not apply to children 12 and under.