“I am deeply concerned by the idea that an image of my child is being used in unknown AI tools and how this could be misused.”
By Frank Landymore
A planned study by the University of Washington would have required preschool teachers to wear cameras to record everything in the classroom from a first-person perspective—including the young children they were teaching—and then use this footage to train AI models. Parents who objected would have had to actively opt out. This meant that unless the researchers received a formal “no,” the children would automatically have become part of the experiment.
“With your permission, your child’s primary teacher may wear a small, teacher-worn camera that captures approximately the teacher’s first-person perspective, and/or we may place a permanently installed video camera in the classroom,” reads a document distributed to parents and obtained by 404 Media in a new investigative report. “These videos will only capture normal interactions between teachers and children during regular classroom activities.”
However, the parents did far more than just opt out. They revolted – and the resistance was so fierce that, according to 404 Media, the University of Washington completely canceled the experiment.
The documents handed out to parents used somewhat vague wording and left key questions unanswered. They stated that the material would be used to “develop and evaluate AI models for assessing the quality of classroom interactions” and that “video data could be processed using cloud-based AI services.” However, they failed to explain which AI models or AI companies would be involved.
Numerous sensitive questions remained. What would happen to the children of parents who refused consent? Would only their faces be blurred in the footage? How could that realistically work? The documents merely stated that researchers would censor faces and names “whenever possible”—which, however, meant that the children would have been filmed nonetheless.
These uncertainties alarmed the parents massively.
“I am troubled by the idea that my child’s image is being used in unknown AI tools and how this could be misused,” a parent, who wished to remain anonymous, told 404 Media.
“I was particularly concerned about whether families could even give informed consent,” she added. “Even as a native English speaker, the vague language of the information sheet left me with a flood of unanswered questions. Many families at our school are migrants and not native English speakers, but the forms were not provided in their respective native languages.”
Education experts also expressed significant concerns regarding the wording in the documents.
“With whom might the data be shared? How long will it be stored? Who is funding the research? These are questions I wanted answers to – and those answers might exist,” Faith Boninger, co-director of the National Education Policy Center, told 404 Media.
The University of Washington finally announced that it was putting the project on hold following parental opposition.
“In light of the initial feedback from parents, we have ended the study and are no longer seeking participants at any location,” a spokesperson told 404 Media, adding that it is “not unusual to end a study in its early stages when receiving feedback from community partners.”
The canceled study marks the latest stage in the advance of AI in education. Companies like OpenAI, Anthropic, and Microsoft are investing millions in teachers’ associations and offering training on how to use their AI tools. Universities are partnering with AI companies to give students free access to AI systems—essentially tacit approval of the fact that students already rely on AI to write essays and complete assignments—or, in other words, to cheat.
And with this massive push to bring AI into classrooms, there is apparently also a growing need for data to train specialized models.
The fact that the study was halted also demonstrates how strongly parents are now driving the growing counter-movement against AI. For example, a planned AI-controlled high school in New York City was canceled after parents protested in front of City Hall last month.
