AI systems detects school violence and report to police

The Ministry of Education announced on Tuesday that it would build an AI-oriented monitoring system to prevent school crime and violence. AI will be used to monitor in real-time visitors from entering unauthorized areas and respond faster to accidents. Sound sensors would be used to pick up sounds of violence, verbally insulting or physically hitting other students, in bathrooms, and alert schoolteachers and sheriffs.

School violence is a serious problem that inflicts permanent damage on students. However, providing guidance on school violence and punishing perpetrators should not be done by AI or police, but by the school and teachers. This is because schools should be the safest place for students to be and educational values prioritized. The role of the school is not to monitor students with AI to prevent them from engaging in violence, but to teach them why it should not be done. The ministry’s actions raise suspicions that it may be attempting to shift responsibility of dealing with school violence to out of school boundaries and evade responsibility.

It is also questionable whether AI systems would be effective in preventing school violence. In the past, most of school violence cases involved physical assault, but more recently it has grown more discreet involving emotional abuse. Nowadays, verbal, and online violence have become more preval‎ent, and school violence takes place more frequently out of school boundaries and out of school AI system radar. If the AI monitoring system grows in scale, it may result in ballooning the frequency of school violence taking place outside of school or online.

The issue of AI violating students’ rights is also worrisome. Once this system is in operation, teachers and parents will be able to identify students’ location in real time. If a student ran and almost slipped on the stairs, the AI would send out a message to be careful. Students would feel like they are being constantly monitored by a “Big Brother.” If such information is leaked outside, it would cause serious privacy implications. Schools are where students learn the basic skills needed to live as an independent member of the community. We should not make the mistake of undermining the values of education by being excessively focused on addressing school violence.