Disney’s theme parks are to start scanning the fingers of children as young as three in an attempt to combat theft and fraud.

According to a report from The Associated Press, Disney said the new process will prevent the use of shared or stolen tickets, using a method children over 10 and adult visitors have been doing for more than a decade.

Tickets for younger children were previously easily transferable because there was no fingerprint attached to them. For parents who don’t want to have their children’s finger scanned, they can use their own scan instead.

The data will not be stored by Disney. The method uses "finger geometry" – pictures of several points on people's fingers – to create a unique digital code linked with the associated ticket.