By TOMOHIRO YAMAMOTO/ Staff Writer
July 11, 2023 at 14:05 JST
The Mie prefectural government building (Tomohiro Yamamoto)
TSU--The decision not to place a 4-year-old girl in temporary custody in 2022 who later died in her mother's care was partly influenced by an artificial intelligence evaluation, according to Mie prefectural officials.
Mie prefectural police arrested a woman on suspicion of bodily harm leading to death in connection to the death of her 4-year-old daughter.
In the aftermath, Mie Governor Katsuyuki Ichimi said he would establish a third-party panel to discuss whether AI should be used in the future in handling child abuse cases.
On July 10, the Mie prefectural assembly held a session in which prefectural officials explained the background to the case involving the 4-year-old girl.
The prefectural government uses past data about child abuse cases in an AI program that calculates a percentage for placing a child under temporary custody. In the case in question, the AI program said there was a 39-percent need for protective custody.
Prefectural officials emphasized that AI alone was never used to decide whether a child should be placed under protective custody and was only used as a reference point to help prefectural officials consider various factors before making a decision.
In February 2022, child consultation center officials met with the mother after reports that her daughter had bruises.
The decision reached was that prefectural officials should occasionally visit the child who would remain in the care of her mother.
The decision was based on the fact that the bruises did not appear to be from abuse and because the mother indicated she would follow the instructions and support from the child consultation center.
The AI evaluation also was factored into the decision to periodically check on the child as she was being cared for at home.
Child consultation center officials later learned the girl was absent for a long period from the day care center but made no effort to contact the mother.
The Mie prefectural government began using the AI program from July 2020. It is based on data from about 6,000 child abuse cases since fiscal 2014.
In compiling a package of measures to prevent child abuse, the central government in September 2022 included the use of AI to determine if a child should be placed in temporary custody as one means of reducing the burden on child consultation centers.
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