Facial recognition technology (FRT) is becoming increasingly popular in schools for various purposes, from exam identification to attendance management. Most recently, it has even been used to enable contactless payments at the cafeteria. Pretty cool, right? Yet -besides facilitating cashless transactions- there are also some concerns about this use of technology. Think of its potential to eliminate cashier jobs, but also of the way in which it could lead to unregulated monitoring and surveillance of children and induce negative psychological repercussions. While it is exciting to see new technologies being used in schools, we need to make sure this occurs under justifiable and proportional circumstances, and in a responsible and safe way. This blogpost will present the various legal, technical, and ethical challenges that the use of FRT in the sphere of schools – as applied to children – may cause, and advocate for a more careful consideration of these issues before this technology is being deployed at scale.
