Exploring the Frontiers of Technology in Forensic Psychiatric Youth Care: Ethical Challenges

Abstract

Technologies such as virtual reality, wearables, and mobile apps have the potential to improve forensic psychiatric treatment of youths. Meanwhile, these technological advancements have given rise to new, complex ethical challenges. Paying attention to ethics is especially relevant in forensic psychiatric youth settings because of the often coercive context of treatment and the vulnerable patient population. The goal of this viewpoint paper is to identify and discuss important ethical challenges regarding the use of technology in forensic psychiatric youth care. In line with approaches within the domain of ethics, an analysis of relevant scholarly literature was used for this viewpoint paper. First, a general description, an overview of research on effectiveness, and examples from practice are provided for six technologies that can be used in forensic psychiatric youth care: virtual reality, internet-based interventions, mobile apps, wearables, neurotechnology, and games. Next, ethical challenges that are relevant for these technologies are explored, related to informed consent, privacy and data security, reliability and validity, equity, accessibility and usability, undesirable side effects, acceptability of content, persuasiveness, and evidence-based interventions. Interdisciplinary collaboration between researchers, patients, therapists, ethicists, technology developers, and forensic organizations is recommended for timely identification of ethical challenges and suitable solutions. We suggest that patients and therapists should be actively involved throughout all phases of the process, from development of the technology via co-creation to active participation in implementation and evaluation in practice.