Oral Presentations Abstracts: READING THE MINDS OF YOUNG PEOPLE FOR THEIR OWN GOOD – THE ETHICS OF DIGITAL PHENOTYPING FOR MENTAL HEALTH IN SCHOOLS

Abstract

View of Volume 66, Special Issue, September 2021

Across the globe the phenomenon of digital phenotyping – the collection and analysis of digital data for mental health – is growing increasingly popular within the education sector. Schools enter collaborations with health care providers, often with the aim to support young people and to reduce the risk for severe mental health challenges, self-harm, and suicide. In developing technologies for these purposes, algorithms and artificial intelligence (broadly construed) could be utilized to provide as rich and accurate data as possible. The data can then be used to flag up at-risk individuals within the system. Despite the increasing interest in digital mental health tools in many educational systems, there has been remarkably little written about the ethical issues that accompany the emergence of digital phenotyping. Arguably more alarming is that almost no research has been conducted on the acceptability and ethics of these technologies in stakeholder populations: we have not asked young people about their values in this context.

In this paper, we present results from a large quantitative study from the UK, showing what young people value and choose in scenarios involving digital phenotyping in schools. We highlight clear discrepancies between what young people value – and how they conceptualize those values – and how the literature describes the ethical implications of related technologies in schools. We argue that policymakers and ethicists urgently need to learn to recognize and respect the moral boundaries of young people.