AI surveillance in schools raises safety and equity concerns | Hacker News Reader

AI surveillance in schools raises safety and equity concerns

brookings.edu

5 pointshn_acker5 comments

I think AI can be good in school for learning, but security risk monitering have a whole lot of risks and with limited data tends to lead to inconsistent flagging instead of making schools safer.

So if we "safely" and "equitably" turn schools into surveillance nightmares with zero privacy during children's tender years, there would be no concerns?

With all due respect, your comment is analogous to responding to "I like pancakes" with "So you hate waffles?".

Sometimes when people say "bad thing is worse for some people than others" they assume that the readers will be in a rational enough mindset to realize the implied "bad thing is bad for everyone".

But they're not saying "bad thing is worse for some people than others", they're saying "thing is bad because it treats people differently and sometimes malfunctions". What will happen when those faults are corrected, but the public has not been educated about any other drawbacks, and doesn't know any other objections?

Will they suddenly learn eloquence and introspection, and be able to translate their instinctive misgivings into strong, logical arguments about the dangers of surveillance?

If you believe that, then you have far more faith in the common public than I. Misplaced faith, given how poorly they've resisted surveillance so far, even in their personal habits.

> But they're not saying "bad thing is worse for some people than others"

Yes they are.

> they're saying "thing is bad because it treats people differently and sometimes malfunctions".

But they're not saying that. Out of 20 total paragraphs (not counting charts and "Some potential strategies for increasing oversight and accountability include:"), at least 14 (including the entire concluding section, containing suggestions) are not about race or equity, and the article mentions students' and parents' reluctance to accept surveillance without regard for whether the technology "malfunctions". For example:

> However, many students don’t feel like they have an adult at school that they can turn to when they’re upset, and the increased use of surveillance may worsen this problem. Students report that in-school surveillance makes them less likely to trust the adults around them and less willing to open up about mental health struggles, problems at home, or signs that a peer might be in crisis. This reluctance matters because research consistently shows that social trust and access to supportive adults are among the most meaningful factors in promoting positive mental health and preventing school violence. If surveillance tools undermine that trust, it becomes difficult to determine whether the tradeoff for increased surveillance actually makes students safer.

(I said "at least" because the remaining paragraphs mention race or equity, contain links mentioning race or equity among other things, or could be interpreted to follow from those paragraphs).

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