A heat panel will also get warm/hot to the touch. When heating mine have reached temperatures as high as 150+f on their surface (usually after opening the enclosure door). The snakes can touch it, but they can't lay on it or maintain sustained contact to cause a burn, so it's a non-issue. With heat lamps I would assume the same circumstances, that your snake may get curious and bump its nose on the warm screen, but it's not likely to devise a way to keep itself up in contact with the screen long enough to cause a burn.
That's my take on it at least. I feel much more comfortable with the panels than I did with the heat mats, because the snakes were making contact with the surface heated by the heat mat, and in that case a swing of only a few degrees can cause a burn since the snake may not move off of the heat source in time as they are not good at sensing temperature from below. I used them for years and years and years without any trouble, but I definitely like my pro products panels and my herpstat 4. So far worth every penny!
As stated by someone else in the thread, the bigger issue with heat lamps is the risk of fire if they are knocked off the enclosure or if something flammable falls on top of them.
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