Lillian Orvald
12/01/17
CMI
Help4Kids Final Analysis
According to the Adoption and Foster Care
Analysis and Reporting System (AFCARS), on any given day, there are nearly
428,000 children in foster care. During 2014, approximately 702,000 children in
foster care were confirmed victims of maltreatment. It is with these statistics
that the Help4Kids foundation was born. With their One-Step Closer Bracelet, the foundation
hopes to change the fate of those in foster care by holding the caretakers
accountable for their foster children. Not only does the bracelet oversee the
wearer's heart rate, it also tracks their whereabouts and monitors their
surroundings via microphone.
Though the idea is honorable, the cons outweigh
the pros for this design. The Help4Kids foundation is placing
an enormous amount of responsibility on not only the social workers, but the
children they oversee as well. The company is asking adolescents to wear an
uncomfortable rubber bracelet 24/7 and charge the device each night. If the
device is removed and not placed on the charger, a notification is sent to the
child's social worker, forcing them to investigate. With this in mind, there is
nothing preventing a caretaker from removing the child's bracelet and
"charging" it to abuse the child without consequences. These are the
types of problems that should be thought of while designing a product.
Thought the tracking capability is useful in
locating a lost child, it is also a huge invasion of privacy. The One
Step Closer bracelet also contains a button for the children to press
if they ever feel they are in danger. Once pressed, the bracelet will send a warning
to the child's social worker and begin to record the surrounding environment
through the microphone. Though helpful, the button could accidentally be
pressed, sending a false alarm to the social worker and thus, wasting their time.
Lastly, there are the notifications sent to the
social worker as a child's heart rate reaches a certain level. However, how
with the Help4Kids foundation account for the high amount of
false alarms as the children's heart rates climb as they play, exercise,
etc?
Though they have a great base for their
product, the Help4Kids foundation
has a long way to go before being able to solve the problem of abuse
within the American foster care system.
1 comment:
Help4Kids inspired me greatly during its presentation.I felt like this was a very influential project. It was presented in very well-organized manner, and the presentation was easy to understand. The speaker was AWESOME, and presented the project like she actually was interested in it. I'm pretty sure we can agree that no one likes a dull monotone speaker that sounds like they're reading off a hidden keycard somewhere. Help4Kids is definitely a organization , and idea that needs to be sponsored. Talking about these kind of children can sometimes be very touchy , and emotional. The group choosing this as their final group project has to be one of the most courageous things I've seen all semester. The subject is almost never discussed, and when it is talked about the facts are twisted. Foster kids are placed in the wrong environment everyday, and it is very seldom that they stumble across a family who will love them as their own. However, the cons outweigh the pros when it comes to social workers in America. You have to find employees that care about the children like their own , and who WANT to do the job wholeheartedly. The system is full of corrupt social workers. I feel like people who are truly committed to being foster parents shouldn't be bother if the amount of inspections were to increase. The bracelet designed by the wonderful group members was a GREAT addition to the project. It would most definitely decrease the amount of abuse by a noticeable percentage. The kids will feel as though they have a better sense of protection. The microphones can be a little tricky though. Especially if the bracelet is placed on a foster child that has behavioral issues , and gets in trouble a lot. The social worker might only hear the foster parents yelling, cursing, or punishing the child in a legal way depending on the what they did. Waterproofing the bracelet is a MUST, and concealing them would also make them more acceptable among the children. No child wants to be labeled like that. It will only increase bullying, and decrease self-esteem. Overall, the pros outweigh the cons in this project. Well done !
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