Dangerous Bills: our children, our families and our communities are in grave danger. 

Experts in social work, child protection, law and AI - including some of the most well-respected in England - plus organisations representing marginalised children and families who will be worst impacted have written to the government to sound the alarm about the surveillance measures in the Children's Wellbeing and Schools Bill and the Data Use and Access Bill. They warn that these measures - claimed by the government as being necessary for ‘safeguarding’ – will actually deeply harm children and their families and usher in a dangerous future.

Powers being introduced

The Data Use and Access Bill catapults us into a dangerous new world of widespread usage of automated decision-making systems. Use of these dangerous forms of AI have already wrecked lives at such scale, the Horizon post office scandal “small beer” in comparison. Not only does this Bill expose our children and us to this danger but it also significantly weakens our children’s and our data protections 

Information which can be described as ‘safeguarding’ – under a definition so broad it could include almost any information about our children’s or our lives – will be able to be stored, shared or processed without carrying out the 'balancing test' that doing so doesn’t harm the “interests or fundamental rights and freedoms of the data subject which require protection of personal data, in particular where the data subject is a child.”

This is dangerous in itself but even worse is that the Children's Wellbeing and Schools Bill will result in there being huge amounts of intrusive data about our children and families. The Bill includes a duty to share information about our children and us ‘relevant to safeguarding or the promotion of welfare’ without child or parental consent. Again, this criteria is worryingly broad and could apply to almost any aspects of children's lives or of parenting. The duty of the state is to provide support but it must be with our consent. We need it to be easier to ask for the help we need, not to be tracked and targeted.

The powers in the Bill about 'children not in school' could - as the government acknowledge - apply even to school children out of school on trips. While we don't yet know who will be in scope - the stated intention is to narrow this through guidance, which can be changed in future- the powers are for greater state surveillance and intrusion than can be tolerated in a democracy. Far beyond a register these include that parents provide an account of how children spends their time, to include weekends; that councils can store any data they feel “appropriate”; that the Secretary of State - including future unknown ones - will be able to change the rules so as to distribute this as they choose; that the council can expect to enter private homes without any specific concerns. 

What this will mean

Information held on our records decides what happens to us everyday of our lives, but we know it is often based on inaccurate and biased data. Even when proven false it can be impossible to remove or correct records. We have years of evidence of the negative consequences which can be triggered by information sharing, especially for those who are marginalised, how lives can be ruined and this new law would make every worst example of that routine and regular. Black and racialised children subjected to heavy policing, exclusion, eviction and removal of opportunities on unsubstantiated claims of gang involvement. PREVENT counter-terrorism powers policing Muslim children as young as 4, flagging children for attendance at protests or for being autistic. Poor families with significant health issues and disabilities "bullied to no good effect" by the Troubled Families programme, a taste of what is coming more widely. 

Sharing information about us makes our children and us vulnerable to data breaches so commonplace in the public sector when so much of their lives - both true and false - will be held on data systems.

These two Bills expose children and families to terrifying harms. Not only has the state never before demanded such control, access and intrusion into our lives but this is happening at the same time as the the roll out of technologies which extend this control access and intrusion in ways we don't yet fully understand. 

Say NO to the information sharing powers in the Children's Wellbeing and Schools Bill and NO to the weakening of data protections and relaxing of restrictions on dangerous automated decision-making systems in the Data Use and Access Bill. 

www.rightsforchildren.uk/dangerousbills