Woebot and Wysa – just a glitch?

 Were the issues with Woebot and Wysa just a glitch or is there no place for Chatbots in safeguarding? Inevitably there has been some apprehension and criticism of chatbots. Some warn that technology is always suspectable to abuse. Fake chatbots are becoming widespread. Some of the concerns are:

• identity theft – sharing any personal information online leaves anyone vulnerable to identity theft, particularly if you are pouring your heart out online, telling a chatbot your intimate secrets. Can the chatbot be hacked – probably!
• credit card fraud – fake websites offering false chatbots services which request your financial details.
• malicious chatbots that direct the user to do an action that may result in mischief e.g. downloading malware.
• chatbots that are hacked and used to spread malice, messages of hatred or disseminate false information.
• cyberbullying via malicious chatbots

This is obviously a cause for concern for chatbots that have some sort of safeguarding responsibility to its users. However, many of these issues relate to fake chatbots and won’t occur if service users access creditable and secure chatbots. That still leaves the problem of chatbots like Wysa and Woebot who fail to identify and deal adequately with scenarios likely to affect vulnerable people. They have a certain responsibility to get it right. Wysa actually acknowledge that their platform is “great for those 4 am conversations” when someone is in “a dark place and have feelings we don’t share with anyone else”. The issue we have is that at 4am, when a person is in a dark place, this is exactly the time that you need to raise your game and get the advice spot on. Has a chatbot the capability to do that?

In fairness to these two particular chatbots, both applications do make it clear that they are not designed to deal with people in a crisis or an emergency. The BBC investigation identified that both bots did signpost to emergency services and helplines, when dealing with users who indicated self-harm and suicidal thoughts. However, as we know, they failed to deal with other major issues.

When asked to comment on the Wysa and Woebot expose, the Children’s Commissioner didn’t completely rule out chatbots as a safeguarding tool. What she actually said was that chatbots “were not currently fit for purpose” in relation to protecting young people. However, she is clearly open to their use in the future, given that her office currently supports the development of a chatbot by various responsible safeguarding organisations. That for us is the crux of the issue, if ill-thought out they may be dangerous, but used in a certain way and with the right handling, there are real possibilities for these bots to be used as a safeguarding tool.

Chatbots – a place in safeguarding

 When describing their product, Woebot point out that more than half of the world’s population still don’t have access to basic health care and that this is an area where chatbots can fill a gap. They have a point. Using technology enables us to reach a wider and yet untapped audience. The same thing can be said of safeguarding. Police and social services are struggling to provide a quality service to the people that need our help, purely because of the volume and not helped by cuts in budgets. Our colleagues in the voluntary sector admirably support those efforts and plug the safeguarding gaps, but they too are reliant on funding. If we are in any doubt of the huge challenges, we face then we don’t have to look much further than the Children’s Commissioners Annual Vulnerability Report (2018).

• 710,000 children and young people 0-17 years in England receiving statutory support
• 1 million children and young people with complex family needs
• 570,000 children and young people in families receiving recognised support for complex family level need
• 6 million children in families with complex needs for which there is no national established, recognised form of support

 Within these figures is a huge volume of children and vulnerable people that will be in need of safeguarding services. It would be remiss of us not to utilise advances in technology to help them, including the use of well thought out and responsible chatbots. Currently there are a number of voluntary safeguarding organisations looking to introduce bots into their work. One such project is the ‘Is It OK’ chatbot, being developed jointly between Childline and Missing People’s Runaway Helpline, and supported by the NSPCC, BBC Children in Need, the police and the Children’s Commissioner.

The ethos behind Is It Ok is that young people at risk of abuse and exploitation often do not seek help for a variety of reasons. The charities aim to utilise chatbot technology to connect with young people who would not ordinarily access their services. The difference between this project and Wysa/Woebot, is that a young person will be engaged in conversation with the bot via simple questions and answers. The chatbot will then decide which service or organisation is the most appropriate for the young person to be signposted to. This includes a human Childline counsellor, trained support worker at the Missing People’s Runaway Helpline, or if required the emergency services. The charities have acknowledged that the chatbot needs to be accessible through the favoured medium for young people, social media platforms. They have also ensured that in its development and delivery, they have consulted and obtained the views of young people. The pilot is due to be rolled out from March onwards.

Another interesting project involves the male suicide prevention charity ‘Campaign against Living Miserably (CALM)’, who in October last year were awarded a £300,000 to assist them in their proposal to develop a chatbot. Their aim is to prioritise calls and increase the number of enquiries they can handle. CALM were awarded the money after they were joint winners at the WCIT (Worshipful Company of Information Technologies) Charity IT Award 2018. The other winner was Missing People, who were also awarded £300,000 to develop their chatbot. WCIT have also pledged to aid more charities to develop artificial intelligence tools.

There are also plans by a company called Reason Digital to develop a chatbot that provides advice to children who may or have been groomed and sexually abused. Although we don’t know too much about this project, we understand that it will provide young people with advice around a safe place to go and get support from trained support workers. This chatbot is being developed with Sara Rowbottom, the former sexual health worker who helped expose the Rochdale child abuse scandal.

So, some exciting and innovative ideas to use chatbots as a tool to reach and provide support to more people requiring help and support. Developed and managed well, they may have real potential in safeguarding.

Thanks for reading