Link – Can we use big data to fight child abuse? The answer is complicated

I will be interested in this trend –

“Analyzing historical data to forecast an event is called predictive analytics, and it’s already being used in some industries; credit card companies, for instance, use predictive analytic tools to detect fraud. In the case of child and family services, these tools could be used to process historical data culled from multiple sources — such as birth and arrest records — to help flag cases where a parent or caregiver is most likely to harm or neglect a child again.”

My interest lies in a number of areas. First, as a survivor, I’m always interested in finding way to intervene when children are in danger. Second, I also work in an industry (Legal eDiscovery) that is seeing the use of big data and predictive analytics rolled out to help lawyers find the important information in a sea of data.

It’s that second interest though, that always brings me to pause when I see something like this though. Yes, data analytics can give a tremendous boost to investigations, but they are still dependent on the people who are tracking the data. A large super-computer is not going to appear and tell us which kids are likely to be abused and how, but the computers can help us analyze data that we simply get overwhelmed by. But, someone still has to decide what data to feed in, and what the important information is when determining how to proceed.

That’s the place where we need to be careful, to make sure the data is not biased, and the actions taken are actually having a positive effect.

You don’t simply point Watson at a problem and walk away.

Big data can be a nice tool, but that’s all it is. We still need diligence, and effective action. Hopefully, some data analytics can help us toward that.

http://bigcommunity.net/big_news/can-we-use-big-data-to-fight-child-abuse-the-answer-is-complicated/