*By Marcelo Batista Nery
In March 2023, the report entitled “Surveillance and education technologies: a mapping of facial recognition policies in Brazilian public schools” was launched, which presents a diagnosis on the use of monitoring technology in these spaces. This report identified fifteen municipalities with the technology, and in three of them surveillance was fully implemented.
School violence is an old problem in Brazil and has serious consequences for students, families, teachers and institutions. As technology has the ability to influence individual subjectivity and generate new behaviors, a broad ethical and rational debate on the use of surveillance technologies as a strategy for managing violence in schools becomes necessary. However, this debate faces a challenge: the feeling of insecurity.
The feeling of insecurity affects and conditions discussions about the use of surveillance technologies. From this point of view, the feeling of insecurity has negative psychological effects on people, such as anxiety, distrust, alienation and, at school, dissatisfaction with the teacher, the school and the community. This feeling limits social activities and, in extreme situations, can lead to the development of an “ideology of insecurity”, with exclusion, racism, xenophobia and other forms of violence, thus being essential to consider it in the debate.
The search for solutions to violence at school must avoid the “ideology of insecurity”, which seeks only individual protection and does not consider the real conditions of the individuals in question. It must be remembered that violence at school is a structural phenomenon of society that manifests itself in educational institutions, where the balance between the emergence of violence and the contestation about it becomes imperative.
Today, the balance is unbalanced and leans towards simplifications and abrupt measures, as quick solutions to such a complex issue. The initially mentioned report, for example, points out that no municipality or state carried out human rights risk impact studies or analyzes on the potential for discrimination resulting from facial recognition technologies before the execution of the project for its implementation.
I have already witnessed discussions, with worrying frequency and lack of depth, on proposals for the use of facial recognition technologies in schools. The idea defended is to use biometrics in classrooms as a solution for monitoring students and identifying behaviors, from marking absences to diagnosing learning and school life problems, to identifying risk factors and the prediction of violent acts.
It is important to clarify that it is not a matter of being against or in favor of the use of these technologies, but to ensure that their implementation is carried out in a responsible and effective manner, with protection of human rights and the dignity of the people involved. Therefore, considering the complexity of the subject, there are several points that need to be discussed to guarantee this protection, among which the following stand out:
- The articulation of an intersectoral network of actions for prevention and responses to violence against children and adolescents;
- Ensuring compliance with existing laws, with reinforcement of formal and social control mechanisms;
- Strengthening the system for reporting violence against children, throughout the Rights Guarantee System (SGD), with emphasis on reporting channels and data transparency laws and information on Human Rights;
- Creation of programs and interventions aimed at reducing disorder and improving relations between students, teachers and employees, with the recovery of the school climate and with spaces of freedom and autonomy;
- Implementation of interventions for the entire school population, together with collective programs for adolescents in situations of social vulnerability and at high risk of developing violent behavior or becoming victimized by violence;
- Identification of the main problems in the school environment, which constitute unsafe environments for children, as a starting point for claiming improvements for the public power;
- Support for teachers and health professionals, understanding that they are essential for reducing exposure to violence among children and adolescents.
It is necessary to consider that the implementation of technologies in educational and public environments must be carried out with caution and in compliance with ethical and legal principles. Concerns about possible impacts on privacy and human rights must be considered, with a broad and informed debate on the subject being fundamental. It is imperative to remember that technologies are not neutral and do not create magical solutions to complex problems, and that a collective and collaborative effort is needed to address this issue, including preventive measures, valuing and supporting good practices and all actors involved in this process.
*Marcelo Batista Nery is a researcher at the ABES Think Tank, Technology Transfer Coordinator and Head of the PAHO/WHO Collaborating Center (BRA-61) of the Center for the Study of Violence at the University of São Paulo
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