CPS Is Taking Kids Away Based on ‘Predictive Analytics’ Computer Program To Judge Parents

Child Protective Services (CPS) is using a “Predictive Analytics” computer program to determine whether or not parents should be allowed to keep their children.

A father from Ohio named Aaron described on The Campaign Show with Patrick Howley Sunday on Patriots Soapbox that predictive analysis was used against him as he fought to keep his daughter, who was taken away for three years by CPS and placed in foster care.

More >> CPS Is Taking Kids Away Based on ‘Predictive Analytics’ Computer Program To Judge Parents

Sims are having their children taken away by ‘CPS’ because of game’s glitch

A glitch in the popular video game The Sims 4 is causing players to have their children taken away from them.

Players are reporting that numerous bugs are making their children unable to eat or bathe, leading the game to act as a virtual social worker and remove the kids from the seemingly abusive home.

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Can Predictive Analytics Root Out the Social Workers Most Likely to Break up Black Families?

The idea of using predictive analytics in child welfare easily conjures images of child abuse investigators targeting parents a machine deems most likely to harm their children.

Because black families are so disproportionately likely to be involved with the child protection system, critics credibly argue that predictive risk modeling will only exacerbate existing racial bias. But what if the tool was used in the other direction: to identify child abuse investigators who disproportionately target black children for removals?

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Biased Algorithms Are Determining Whether Poor Parents Get to Keep Their Kids

Poor people give away a lot of information. If you’ve never lived under the poverty line, you might not be aware how much of our personal privacy we trade away for basic benefits such as food stamps, health insurance, and utility discounts. It’s not just Social Security numbers and home addresses, which are required as part of these applications; it includes health histories, household incomes, living expenses, and employment histories. Most people shrug off this exchange: What good is personal data when you have no money and terrible credit anyway — especially when you don’t really have a choice?

But after decades of collecting this data, the government is putting it to use. This information is feeding algorithms that decide everything from whether or not you get health insurance to how much time you spend in jail. Increasingly, it is helping determine whether or not parents get to keep their kids.

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Computer Issues At Colorado's Child Protection Services Are Putting Kids At Risk

roblems with Colorado's $25.3 million overhaul of its child protection computer system are putting children at risk and the state is not acting urgently enough to fix it, county workers said.

Members of the Colorado Human Services Directors Association told state officials in an Oct. 19 letter that problems with the system "are crippling our work."

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Don’t trust algorithms to predict child-abuse risk

Your are right to highlight councils’ use of data about adults and children without their permission, alongside the warped stereotypes that inevitably shape the way families are categorised (Council algorithms use family data to predict child-abuse risk, 17 September). But the problems are more wide-ranging. In policy debates shaped by the Climbié and Baby P scandals, pre-emptive interventions sound attractive, but ethical debates about what level of intervention in family life, on what basis, and how pre-emptively, still need to take place. Such debates would be necessary with accurate predictions but become absolutely crucial when, as with any risk screening programme, false positives are unavoidable. In a given population where the base rate of abuse is low, these errors will be drastically higher than commonly believed.

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377,000 people’s data used to predict child abuse

Data on thousands of UK residents is being amassed and used as part of a scheme to predict child abuse. Computer models with “predictive analytics” are being engineered using at least 377,000 people’s data, in a bid to crack down on child abuse.

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An eHarmony for adopting kids? Florida launches novel computer-matching pilot program

Can the same data-crunching technology that matches potential couples based on personality, values and interests help Florida’s foster children get adopted?

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Ransomware attacks hit two Ontario children’s aid societies

Ransomware attacks at two children’s aid societies have spurred the Ontario government to tighten cybersecurity around a new, $123-million provincial database for children in care.

One of the agencies — the Children’s Aid Society of Oxford County — paid a $5,000 ransom to regain access to their sensitive data after the malware attack on their local servers on Jan. 18, according to sources with knowledge of the incident.

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Ransomware attacks hit two Ontario children’s aid societies

Ransomware attacks at two children’s aid societies have spurred the Ontario government to tighten cybersecurity around a new, $123-million provincial database for children in care.

More >> Ransomware attacks hit two Ontario children’s aid societies

As Artificial Intelligence Grows in Government, Experts Urge Caution

A.I. simulates human intelligence and changes the way it behaves without intervention. It can perform both simple and complex tasks. For example, A.I. can schedule meetings for workers, search for documents or even fill in forms by asking users specific questions. In the case of the more complex situations, A.I. can predict the best time for a caseworker to intervene in a child welfare case.

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Audit: Computer system poses risk to child safety

Michigan’s 3-year-old computer system designed to manage child welfare cases remains flawed and is “posing a risk to child and worker safety,” according to a critical state audit that department officials say has already resulted in corrective actions.

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• MI audit identifies issues with child welfare computer system
• Problems continue for Michigan's child welfare database

School-issued computers spy on children in US without parental consent – digital rights group

School-issued computer devices – provided to one-third of school children across the US – collect excessive amounts of highly sensitive personal data on the students without parental consent or even prior notice, a new study finds.

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How Child Protection Agencies Are Trying to Predict Which Parents Will Abuse Kids

In 1999, the foster care population in the United States reached a peak at 567,000. But due to both diminishing budgets and programs aimed at keeping children in their homes, that number dropped to 415,000 by 2014. The representation of black children in the foster system remains disproportionately high, however: Black children account for 24 percent of kids in foster care, while comprising just 14 percent of the general population of children in the US. And a burgeoning method for determining exactly which families get visits from child welfare caseworkers has advocates for low-income families worried the disparity will only get worse.

More >> How Child Protection Agencies Are Trying to Predict Which Parents Will Abuse Kids

Children's aid office in eastern Ontario facing $75M suit over privacy breach

An eastern Ontario children's aid society is facing a $75 million lawsuit after a cyber attack resulted in a list of client names being stolen and shared on local Facebook groups.

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Child Visitation Hits the Internet

Child Visitation Hits the Internet

Florida is one of several states that have created laws allowing parents to engage in virtual visitation with their children. This type of visitation enables non-custodial parents to utilize technology to maintain and preserve their parent/child relationships. Types of virtual visitation include video conferencing, e-mail, video chatting, instant messaging and most any other electronic means of communication.

Uncharted Waters: Data Analytics and Child Protection in Los Angeles

Uncharted Waters: Data Analytics and Child Protection in Los Angeles

On Wednesday, July 22, Los Angeles County’s recently formed Office of Child Protection will hold a community forum to discuss the simultaneously disquieting and promising prospect of using “big data” to help determine which children are the most likely to be abused.

Big Data Wave Breaks on Child Protective Services

Big Data Wave Breaks on Child Protective Services

The idea of predictive analytics, where big data is crunched to better assess the likelihood of something happening, is gaining traction in the field of child protection with hot spots in Los Angeles, across the country in Pennsylvania and as far afield as New Zealand.

Michigan caseworkers: New problem-plagued computer system slowing child protection efforts

Michigan caseworkers: New problem-plagued computer system slowing child protection efforts

Frustrated state caseworkers told lawmakers Tuesday that a 10-month-old computer system is riddled with problems that are hampering their efforts to protect vulnerable children.

Anonymous "Hactivist" Group Targets Child Protective Services

Anonymous "Hactivist" Group Targets Child Protective Services

The "hactivist" group Anonymous, known for attacks on Visa, Mastercard, PayPal and high level cyber security firms, has announced "Operation: Expose CPS" against Child Protective Services and are calling it an attack on the legal kidnapping and trafficking of children for profit.