Counter point: when this isnt an obscure thing, and kids are aware of it, they will purposefully use trigger words because they are kids.
If kids/people are having mental health issues, whats the best way to handle that? By scanning for the symptom and telling them to stop being mentally troubled? I really doubt kids are getting the care they need based on these flags. Seems like a bandaid for cultural/systemic issues that cause the mental illness/harm.
Sure, maybe, but I’d also say you shouldn’t let the perfect be the enemy of the good.
Yes, we should absolutely have better mental healthcare safety nets. Yes, false positives are probably a pretty common prank.
But this isn’t a zero sum game. This can work on tandem with a therapist/counsellor to try and identify someone before they shoot up a school and get them help. This might let the staff know a kid is struggling with suicidal ideation before they find the kid OD’d on moms sleeping pills.
In an ideal world would this be unnecessary? Absolutely. But we don’t live in that ideal world.
In fairness you cant just say its not a zero sum game when the article is supported with a quote from one individual saying they were glad it told them in some cases. We dont know how effective it is.
This is normalizing very intimate (and automated) surveillance. Kids all have smart phones and can google anything they want when they arent using school hardware. If kids have any serious pre-meditation to do something bad then they will do it on their smartphones.
The only reason this would be effective is to catch students before they are aware they are being watched (poof thats gone tomorrow), or the student is so dirt poor that they dont have a smart phone or craptop.
And what else will the student data be used for? Could it be sold? It would certainly have value. Good intentions are right now… data is FOREVER.
As a concerned and very involved parent, I do not want this nonsense tracking my child, because I value my child’s privacy. I also don’t provide them a phone, because they haven’t demonstrated to me that they’ll use it responsibly (oldest is 10). If I let my kids have a device, it’s because I trust them with it, and I let them use my desktop and laptop w/o supervision and w/o any tracking to do things like play games and do homework, but they only get access when I say they can. When they earn my trust, I’ll let them have their own device with their own passwords that I don’t know.
But I don’t think I’m the target audience here. My kids aren’t poor and we have a pretty good relationship. I tell them consistently if they don’t feel comfortable talking to me about something, who they can talk to (teachers, school counselors, ecclesiastical leaders, certain neighbors, etc). I wish all kids had parents who had the time and inclination to care for their emotional needs, but that’s not the world we live in. That said, we do exist, so whatever policies exist need to cater to privacy-minded families who properly take care of their kids.
I don’t know the solution here, but I will oppose any hidden surveillance I hear about.
Counter point: when this isnt an obscure thing, and kids are aware of it, they will purposefully use trigger words because they are kids.
If kids/people are having mental health issues, whats the best way to handle that? By scanning for the symptom and telling them to stop being mentally troubled? I really doubt kids are getting the care they need based on these flags. Seems like a bandaid for cultural/systemic issues that cause the mental illness/harm.
Sure, maybe, but I’d also say you shouldn’t let the perfect be the enemy of the good.
Yes, we should absolutely have better mental healthcare safety nets. Yes, false positives are probably a pretty common prank.
But this isn’t a zero sum game. This can work on tandem with a therapist/counsellor to try and identify someone before they shoot up a school and get them help. This might let the staff know a kid is struggling with suicidal ideation before they find the kid OD’d on moms sleeping pills.
In an ideal world would this be unnecessary? Absolutely. But we don’t live in that ideal world.
In fairness you cant just say its not a zero sum game when the article is supported with a quote from one individual saying they were glad it told them in some cases. We dont know how effective it is.
This is normalizing very intimate (and automated) surveillance. Kids all have smart phones and can google anything they want when they arent using school hardware. If kids have any serious pre-meditation to do something bad then they will do it on their smartphones.
The only reason this would be effective is to catch students before they are aware they are being watched (poof thats gone tomorrow), or the student is so dirt poor that they dont have a smart phone or craptop.
And what else will the student data be used for? Could it be sold? It would certainly have value. Good intentions are right now… data is FOREVER.
Exactly.
As a concerned and very involved parent, I do not want this nonsense tracking my child, because I value my child’s privacy. I also don’t provide them a phone, because they haven’t demonstrated to me that they’ll use it responsibly (oldest is 10). If I let my kids have a device, it’s because I trust them with it, and I let them use my desktop and laptop w/o supervision and w/o any tracking to do things like play games and do homework, but they only get access when I say they can. When they earn my trust, I’ll let them have their own device with their own passwords that I don’t know.
But I don’t think I’m the target audience here. My kids aren’t poor and we have a pretty good relationship. I tell them consistently if they don’t feel comfortable talking to me about something, who they can talk to (teachers, school counselors, ecclesiastical leaders, certain neighbors, etc). I wish all kids had parents who had the time and inclination to care for their emotional needs, but that’s not the world we live in. That said, we do exist, so whatever policies exist need to cater to privacy-minded families who properly take care of their kids.
I don’t know the solution here, but I will oppose any hidden surveillance I hear about.