Concerns have been raised after it emerged that more than twice as many Catholic children were subjected to strip searches than Protestants, last year.
Details emerged after the Police Ombudsman published the findings of a report into the on-going practice.
The Children and Young People, Strip Searching in Police Custody reveals that a total of 27 children were subjected to the practice last year.
Of those searched 23 were boys.
The youngest person searched was 14 and an appropriate adult was present for searches on just six occasions.
Prohibited items were found just twice.
Significantly, the report also found that of those children whose religion was identified, twice as many were from a Catholic background.
A total of ten identified as Catholic and four as Protestant.
Six search subjects had no religion while seven refused to provide details.
In a chapter headed discrimination the report said: "Discrimination on the grounds of religion by public authorities is unlawful in Northern Ireland," the report said.
"The fact that the statistics indicate some kind of disproportionality does not necessarily mean that PSNI or its officers are involved in any intentional discrimination but rather it might suggest unconscious unlawful indirect discrimination."
SDLP MLA Mark H Durkan said the PSNI and the Policing Board "need to ensure that there is consistency in the use of police powers and across communities."
"This must also be seen through a wider prism. The wider concern and with much larger numbers is any differential in the community background of the use of stop and search including younger people," he said.
"The profile of strip searching is a particular expression of this deeper issue."
Assistant Chief Constable Alan Todd said: “These figures are based on information volunteered by the detained persons and many individuals refuse to provide community background information.
"The Police Service does not have a legislative power to require detained persons to provide information on their community background.
"This impacts on statistical understanding and makes the monitoring of community background statistics challenging and in small data sets unreliable."
He added that "the decision to conduct a strip search of a young person is never taken lightly".
"There are however occasions when our staff believe an individual has concealed an item that could potentially cause themselves serious harm," he said.
"We take our statutory obligation to ensure the safety of those in police custody extremely seriously - even more so when it is a young person.
"These powers are only used when deemed absolutely necessary and, in common with all police powers, used with impartially and regardless of community background."
The PSNI was contacted.
