Why Are Child Welfare Advocates Sabotaging Data-Driven Efforts to Protect Children?

https://chronicleofsocialchange.org/opinion/15852/15852

Opposition to using data to assist with child welfare investigations may be jeopardizing the well-being of children?  Some advocates worry that using data would perpetuate racial discrimination, violate human rights,and ultimately cause more harm than good.  Criticism of this approach is that automating risk analysis could promote racial discrimination.  Some critics complain that there is a fundamental misunderstanding of how the technology actually works which leads to user error.   The author of this blog, Joshua New, states that given the scale of the need and opportunity to improve children’s welfare,slowing experimentation with predictive analytics would be incredibly detrimental. As an increasing number of government officials recognize the potential of this approach, they should be careful not to give credence to advocates more fearful of data than they are concerned about the welfare of children.  What do you think?  Would data collection cause more harm than good for identifying the most at-risk children?