The Data for Children Collaborative, part of the Edinburgh Futures Institute, has been continuously developing and refining their Responsible Innovation framework to support challenge-led, multi-sectoral collaborative data projects which aim to improve the lives of children. This Responsible Innovation framework is a suite of tools and approaches that are used across end-to-end data project delivery, surfacing and mitigating socio-ethical, legal, and regulatory considerations.
Putting children first
The Data for Children Collaborative is a value-led organisation and its philosophy on ethics goes much deeper than level one; data protection, data privacy and data management, or even level two; socio-ethical questions around potential harms from project outputs, outcomes, and impact. The team seek to explore a number of ethical factors across the entirety of a data project, from asking “have the intended group to be impact asked for this work and are they the best people to deliver?” to exploring roles and responsibilities and considering power imbalances, to considering the meaningful engagement of the voice of that group in the work. The team has developed the suite of tools to be broad enough to cover a variety of scenarios, but pragmatic enough to improve the design and delivery of every project.
One example of a project that has been strengthened by this framework is a project for UNICEF to develop a methodology for using machine learning techniques to follow online mental health and well-being discourse among young people and adolescents to inform programming. For the purposes of this collaborative data project, the Data for Children Collaborative brought together UNICEF Country Office representatives from Kazakhstan and Tajikistan, UNICEF Regional Office representatives, and academics from social and political sciences, data science, and health and social sciences. A key element to this project’s design was to engage with young people directly to understand the nuance of the language they use online to discuss mental health topics and seek mental health support.
How does the Responsible Innovation framework make a difference?
Through utilising an ethical approach of workshopping discussions around the impact of the project on people, data, and communications, the team brought together a diverse set of expertise for reflective consideration. This led to more transparency and respect for the young people involved and more clarity around how to navigate ethical risks, such as harmful content or politically sensitive content.
The methods used ensured the engaged participants were representative for the project, so that elements like interpretation of language nuance would be more visible rather than thinking of this as a translation exercise. By conforming to strict values, any temptation to cut corners was avoided and it was ensured that the content of discussions with young people was to the right level, and that they were safeguarded and supported effectively.
This approach generated trust in the research insights, offering long lasting societal impacts by ensuring they are created in an ethically robust environment. The value of this approach and the framework extends beyond the single project to the wider work of all parties involved, from being more aware of the ethical implications of their decision making to championing safe data practices.
The Data for Children Collaborative prioritise ethics at every step of their work. Its foundations for each project are set through a series of structured workshops and ethics journalling. This ensures ethical deliberation across a series of crafted questions on people, data, and communications through an online platform. Beyond this, ethics is a standing item in monthly meetings with collaborative teams to understand if any new ethical risks or issues have arisen and need to be addressed.
