Social workers fear videos of meetings will be put online

Research shows social workers are concerned about clients threatening to post videos of their meetings, which they are legally allowed to film.

The study also highlights how social workers sometimes use social media to monitor clients but are also fearful of crossing ethical boundaries and are concerned about being “surveilled” by clients through their own social media accounts.

The study, Social Media Surveillance in Social Work: Practice Realities and Ethical Implications has been published in the Journal of Technology in Human Services. It outlines how the social workers shared a number of examples of how social media is facilitating uncontrolled and, in their view, inappropriate sharing of information.

“The potential of social media for surveillance is being realised and is multi-directional; this includes social workers surveilling clients, clients surveilling family members, and clients surveilling social workers.”

Authors Julie Byrne, Gloria Kirwan, and Conor McGuckin of Trinity College Dublin sought to update previous research about the use of electronic communications across a range of disciplines and look specifically at social media technologies and “the real and serious ethical dilemmas” associated with it.

Based on interviews with 10 social workers, it said searching for clients on social media raised “a considerable dilemma”.

“They believed that conducting a social media search on a client crosses an ethical boundary for the professional. Even though a client’s social media information may be “public,” they perceived that the account itself is part of a client’s private life and, therefore, is not something they should engage with in the absence of client consent.

“However, it was the view of many participants that investigating clients’ private lives is sometimes necessary in social work where risk is deemed to be high and, thus, there are occasions when a social media search is necessary and acceptable, notably in child protection work,” the report said.

One interviewee told researchers printouts of their Messenger messages and screenshots of other people’s Facebook pages are being used in court, with family members also providing screenshot information to social workers about their children.

While one social worker said they would be vigilant about appearing in clients’ photographs which could be posted to social media or forwarded, the study said: “One emerging and controversial avenue for surveillance is the potential for video recording of the social worker during meetings with clients and distribution of the video, and photos on social media.”

One interviewee said:

“[We’ve had video] streaming during access, taking photos of us and threatening to put them on social media. There’s the [agency name] Child Robbers page. So we have to be very careful. Any phone use in close proximity, we have to be alert.”