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I don’t think using AI for surveillance of kids in school is a good idea

January 24, 2026
•Artificial intelligence
I don’t think using AI for surveillance of kids in school is a good idea

Here's something that really caught my attention — using AI to surveil kids in school. Now, imagine an AI system originally built for factories being used to monitor students’ attention in real-time. According to /u/No_Turnip_1023, they did this just for fun, which is honestly pretty unsettling. They claim it’s to give teachers feedback, but here's where it gets tricky — this isn’t about improving education, it’s about surveillance. And get this — if they really wanted to help kids learn better, they'd build personalized learning systems, not spy cameras. Schools are already tough enough; adding AI surveillance just makes them more oppressive. As /u/No_Turnip_1023 points out, tech isn’t the problem — how people choose to use it is. So, what does this mean? We should be asking: do we really want AI peering into every classroom? Or is there a better, less invasive way to support education without turning schools into surveillance zones?

I don’t think using AI for surveillance of kids in school is a good idea

There's this post on Linkedin, where they demonstarte an "experiment". This is how they define it: "We tried to build an AI vision model which can tell, in real time, which students are attentive and which ones are distracted in a classroom."

"... (this) AI computer vision SaaS originally designed to monitor factories and offices. We tried to use the AI monitoring application inside our classroom. Just for fun, honestly."

Notice the words, "just for fun". You just built a system for surveillance of kids in schools.... for FUN.

They justify this by highlighting a positive use case: this tech will provide feedback to teachers.

This is a great example of tech not being the problem, but how people use it.

If they really wanted to use AI to improve education, why not build a AI powered personalized education system. But no, a surveillance system is what came to their minds.

School is suffocating enough as it is. Now people are using AI amplify it. If anything, we could do with less of it in schools, make them more open.

submitted by /u/No_Turnip_1023
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I don’t think using AI for surveillance of kids in school is a good idea

There's this post on Linkedin, where they demonstarte an "experiment". This is how they define it: "We tried to build an AI vision model which can tell, in real time, which students are attentive and which ones are distracted in a classroom."

"... (this) AI computer vision SaaS originally designed to monitor factories and offices. We tried to use the AI monitoring application inside our classroom. Just for fun, honestly."

Notice the words, "just for fun". You just built a system for surveillance of kids in schools.... for FUN.

They justify this by highlighting a positive use case: this tech will provide feedback to teachers.

This is a great example of tech not being the problem, but how people use it.

If they really wanted to use AI to improve education, why not build a AI powered personalized education system. But no, a surveillance system is what came to their minds.

School is suffocating enough as it is. Now people are using AI amplify it. If anything, we could do with less of it in schools, make them more open.

submitted by /u/No_Turnip_1023
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