Insight for Sunday 21 June 2015
Richard rejects the idea that his personal information would give any insight into whether his children might suffer harm. (RNZ / Teresa Cowie)
New Zealand has a significant child abuse problem. On average, in recent years, a child is killed every 5 weeks.
Every year Child Youth and Family takes about 150 thousand calls from people worried about a child and just over twenty thousand turn out to be actual cases of abuse or neglect.
But imagine if it was possible to do away with the ambulance at the bottom of the cliff and predict which children might be at risk to of harm before it's even happened.
Government commissioned research using personal family data to forecast possible abuse appears to be fairly accurate.
But Teresa Cowie asks if there are still lines to be drawn between protecting children and the use of personal information?