Parents Revolt After College Tries Surveillance Experiment On Kids, Report Shows

Researchers shuttered a plan to train AI by filming preschoolers after facing backlash from parents, according to an investigative report.

University of Washington researchers planned to ask preschool teachers to record student behavior with wearable or fixed cameras, 404 Media reported Monday. Parents successfully had the study cancelled over concerns for their children’s privacy.

“I am troubled by the idea of using my child’s likeness in unknown AI tools and how this could be abused,” one parent reportedly told 404 Media.

“I was particularly concerned about families’ ability to give informed consent. As a native English speaker, the vague language in the handout left me with a slew of questions. Many families in our school are migrants and non-native English speakers, but forms were not provided in any of their native languages,” she said.

Dr. Gail Joseph and the university’s Cultivate Learning team aimed to develop AI tools “that can help assess classroom interaction quality,” according to a document sent to parents and shared with 404 Media. These recordings would cover their normal daily routine and “occur during morning program hours up to 150 minutes, up to 4 visits in one month.” It also stated that students’ faces would have been blurred and their names edited out of the audio.

While the document stated participation was “completely voluntary,” parents would have been required to manually withdraw from the study if they didn’t want their children recorded.

“The UW College of Education is a leader in early childhood education in part because of the relationships and trust we’ve built with our community partners, including schools and parents,” university spokesperson David Rey told DCNF in an email Tuesday.