Session 4

Digital Ethics and Professional Transformation

P32  "Digital Stigma" in the Algorithmic Era: Ethical Challenges and Systemic Impacts of AI Background Screening on Employment Support for Justice-Involved Individuals.

*Jun Chen¹

¹Guangzhou Panyu POAI Social Work Service, Guangzhou, China

Abstract

Background and Purpose: Employment is the cornerstone for the successful reintegration of justice-involved individuals and the realization of "restorative justice." However, with the proliferation of AI-driven background check plugins and automated digital platforms, traditional employment assistance systems are facing a systemic failure. This study aims to explore the phenomenon of "digital stigma" generated by AI screening, analyzing how it creates novel "digital barriers" through data violence and examining the resulting ethical dilemmas within social work practice.

Methods: This study adopts a qualitative research approach, conducting in-depth interviews with five justice-involved individuals who have experienced representative setbacks. All participants demonstrated a strong intent to reintegrate and obtained professional technical certifications during their rehabilitation, yet they faced profound obstruction during or after hiring due to AI screening and subsequent social exclusion.

Results: The findings reveal that the intervention of digital platforms and their plugins has led to three critical systemic failure points:

• Algorithmic Erasure and "Narrative Deprivation": AI labels individuals as "social safety risks" based on fragmented public data, effectively overriding the human capital accumulated through certifications and depriving individuals of the right to define their own life trajectories.

• The "Consent Trap" and Social Lynching: Candidates are forced into a predatory choice between "digital nakedness" and "algorithmic exclusion." The study identifies that background checks have extended to "retroactive screening during probation." Moreover, negative AI labels spill over into informal networks (e.g., HR WeChat groups), forming industry-wide blacklists that function as a form of untraceable "social lynching," completely blocking professional social work intervention.

• Chilling Effects and Structural Resource Atrophy: Witnessing the stigmatization of peers creates psychological barriers, leading to self-marginalization. When AI implements "precise interception" and intimidation at the front end of the labor market, substantial government and social work investments (vocational training, counseling) suffer a severe structural loss at the back end.

Conclusions and Implications: In the face of "digital isolation," social work practice must undergo a systemic reconstruction. The study recommends granting justice-involved individuals "digital rights" and formal algorithmic appeal mechanisms. It calls for collaboration between governments and platforms to establish "de-labeled" official credit systems. Social workers must evolve into "digital rights advocates" to protect human dignity deep within the algorithms.

P33  Ethical Dilemmas and Strategies in Children`s Social Work Empowered by Digital Technology: A Systematic Literature Review

Keru Pei¹

¹Lanzhou university, Lanzhou, China

Abstract

The application of artificial intelligence in child social work is becoming increasingly widespread, yet it has also given rise to certain ethical dilemmas. This paper, through a systematic review and meta-analysis, identifies four major ethical dilemmas caused by conflicts in objectives, responsibilities, roles, and interests. Strategies to address these dilemmas are proposed from the perspective of relevant stakeholders: service providers should clarify ethical responsibility principles and strengthen ethical education and research; service recipients need to enhance ethical awareness and reinforce participation consciousness; technologists should embed fairness considerations into algorithm design and ensure information technology security; regulators should establish regulatory frameworks, optimize government-society collaborative response mechanisms, and construct legal frameworks to strengthen ethical institutional norms. These measures are conducive to promoting the practical development of child social work in the AI era. Future research should deeply analyze the underlying causes of ethical dilemmas, emphasize case evidence and quantitative analysis, and broaden the scope of literature analysis.

P34  Ethical Preparedness of the “Digital Natives”: An Analysis of the Digital Ethics Challenges Facing Young Social Workers and Their Causes

*Guan Jingyi¹

¹School of Philosophy and Social Sciences, Lanzhou University, Lanzhou, China

Abstract

The widespread adoption of digital technologies is profoundly transforming the nature of social work services. For young social workers—particularly those who are “digital natives”—tools such as instant messaging, social media, cloud-based collaboration, and intelligent assessment have become essential supports for their daily practice. However, the deep integration of technology has not only reshaped service delivery contexts but also posed real challenges to the ethical foundations of traditional social work. Drawing on the perspective of the sociology of technology, this paper interprets digital ethical dilemmas as a product of the mutual construction of technology and society: digital technology has given rise to interactive models—such as “digital intimacy”—that blur professional boundaries, while simultaneously weakening the supervisory and constraining power of traditional ethical norms. Building on this, the paper systematically analyzes the ethical decision-making dilemmas faced by young social workers under multiple pressures, including lagging educational preparation and a lack of organizational support. It finds that entering digital service settings without systematic preparation leaves them vulnerable to issues such as blurred boundaries, perfunctory informed consent, and difficulties in protecting privacy. To address these challenges, the paper introduces ecosystem theory to construct a “ethical preparedness” framework that spans education, institutions, and culture. This framework emphasizes that the development of young social workers’ ethical competence relies not only on individual awareness but also on multi-level, systematic collaborative interventions. Through the updating of educational content, the refinement of institutional systems, and the cultivation of a professional culture, young social workers can be helped to transition from passive users of technology to practitioners with ethical self-awareness. The discussion in this paper can serve as a reference for social work training, supervision mechanisms, and policy-making in the digital age, and also offers insights for reshaping the boundaries of the social work profession.

P35  What AI Cannot Capture in Social Work: Emotion, Lived Experience, and Judgment

*Yilan WU¹

¹School of Social and Public Administration, East China University of Science and Technology, Shanghai, China

Abstract

Background and Purpose: As AI is increasingly introduced into social work, many discussions focus on its value for improving efficiency, managing information, and supporting service delivery. Yet social work is not only about processing information or matching needs with interventions. It also depends on how workers respond to emotion, enter people’s life worlds, and make judgments in situations that are often unstable, incomplete, or difficult to define. Focusing on the Chinese context, this study explores how social workers, scholars, and related practitioners understand both the value and the limits of AI in social work.

Methods: This study adopts a qualitative design based primarily on semi-structured interviews, supplemented by participant observation in selected practice and professional settings. Participants include frontline social workers, social work scholars and educators, and related practitioners such as supervisors, program managers, and professionals involved in digital service development. The interviews and observations focus on how AI is understood and used in practice, which kinds of work are seen as open to technological support, and where participants locate its limits, especially in relation to emotion, lived experience, relational work, and professional judgment. The data will be analyzed through thematic analysis.

Results: The study points to a clear difference between the parts of social work where AI is seen as helpful and the parts where its limits become more visible. AI is more easily accepted in structured tasks such as documentation, information sorting, and initial analysis. Its limits appear more clearly when practice involves emotion, relationship-building, and judgments made in changing and uncertain situations. What matters in these moments is often not only what is said, but also what is left unclear, expressed indirectly, or still unfolding. AI may assist with what can be recorded and categorized, but social work often depends on engaging what is emotionally layered and difficult to articulate.

Conclusions and Implications: This paper argues that AI can support social work, but it cannot stand in for the work itself. The issue is not simply that current technologies are limited. More importantly, social work deals with lives that are often unclear, unfinished, and emotionally dense. This gives the profession a character that cannot be reduced to efficiency, standardization, or prediction. For social work education and professional development, the task is not only to strengthen technological literacy, but also to sustain the forms of understanding that remain central to practice, including ethical judgment, relational engagement, and sensitivity to lived experience.

P36  Exploring the Boundaries and Conditions of Client Self-Determination in Social Work Practice within the Digital Context

*Yanjin Zhu¹

¹Lanzhou university, Lanzhou, China

Abstract

The principle of client self-determination, a cornerstone of social work ethics rooted in respect for individual autonomy, is facing unprecedented challenges due to the pervasive integration of digital technologies such as artificial intelligence and algorithmic decision-making into practice. While these tools promise enhanced efficiency, they also risk eroding informed consent through opaque "black box" algorithms, reducing the "whole person" to data points, and compressing the space for autonomous choice. This study conducts a theoretical literature analysis, synthesizing research from social work, ethics, and technology studies to explore how the boundaries of self-determination are being reshaped in digitally-mediated practice. Employing an integrated framework that draws on concepts such as "moral crumple zones," self-determination theory, and ethical auditing, the analysis identifies three interrelated boundaries. Technological boundaries arise from algorithmic opacity, embedded biases, and the dominance of instrumental rationality. Structural boundaries are created by power asymmetries with commercial tech platforms and institutional pressures for administrative efficiency, which can lead to defensive professional practice. Cognitive boundaries relate to the digital literacy gaps of both clients and practitioners, hindering meaningful informed consent. The study concludes that safeguarding self-determination in the digital era requires a shift towards "critical digital practice." This involves actively constructing new enabling conditions through institutional governance, including mandatory human-centered ethical audits of algorithms; professional capacity building to develop practitioners' critical digital literacy; and technology design that is explainable, contestable, and empowering. Ultimately, social workers must proactively engage with technology to ensure it serves, rather than undermines, human dignity and agency.