from Hacker News

Tool Monitors How Long Kids Are in the Bathroom Is Now in 1k American Schools

by Rackedup on 8/19/22, 4:19 PM with 20 comments

• by tdeck on 8/19/22, 7:52 PM

  My partner was in a class at Berkeley where different teams devised ML projects and implemented them. One of the team's idea was to "combat obesity" by installing cameras in elementary schools to monitor the children's estimated weight and notify their parents if it seemed like the kid was getting fatter. The only thing more disturbing was that they called a bunch of elementary schools and got very enthusiastic responses from the schools - their presentation included a quote like "where have you been all this time?" from a school principal.

• by IceMetalPunk on 8/19/22, 4:25 PM

  "Mrs. Smith, your son was supposedly in the bathroom for nearly 40 minutes."

  "...he's 13..."

  "Exactly. What could a 13-year-old boy be doing in the bathroom for that long unless it's something suspicious?"

  "...you poor, sheltered soul."

• by brnt on 8/19/22, 6:23 PM

  Some people read 1984 and go 'huh, pretty neat idea'...

• by scohesc on 8/19/22, 5:36 PM

  They'll start using surveillance technology in schools so that easily impressionable kids will be used to it by the time they're adults - and by the time anybody speaks up it'll be used in the corporate environment, then society as a whole.

  It's like how Apple pushed for their Apple computers to be in schools in the 80s (90s?), and how Google pushes Chromebooks onto educators.

• by Rackedup on 8/19/22, 4:36 PM

  Does that mean that they don't trust their teachers?

  or do they want to know who goes to the bathroom at the same time?

• by dp-hackernews on 8/19/22, 6:05 PM

  Slavery by the back door!