Black Mirror’s Arkangel Ethics Evaluation

Arkangel implant being inserted into a child’s head. Screenshot from Black Mirror, “Arkangel” (Brooker & Foster, 2017). Copyright 2017 by Netflix. Reproduced under fair use for educational purposes.

Netflix’s Black Mirror Season 4 episode “Arkangel” (Brooker & Foster, 2017) opens with a mother giving birth to her beloved daughter, Sara, then cuts to a few years later. What looks to be an uneventful day turns into a mother’s worst nightmare: her daughter is missing. Eventually, she regains a semblance of peace when she is reunited with her daughter; however, the worry remains. What if her daughter wandered off again? What if something even worse could happen?

Enter Arkangel, an implant paired with a monitoring tablet with a multitude of features, ultimately designed to protect one’s child. Despite good intentions, this product has significant ethical impacts, which will be explored below.

Arkangel monitoring tablet being unboxed. Screenshot from Black Mirror, “Arkangel” (Brooker & Foster, 2017). Copyright 2017 by Netflix. Reproduced under fair use for educational purposes.

Features

Location Tracking

The location-tracking features allow parents to see where their child is at all times and, if the child is lost, to notify the police immediately.

Arkangel monitoring tablet displaying location tracking. Screenshot from Black Mirror, “Arkangel” (Brooker & Foster, 2017). Copyright 2017 by Netflix. Reproduced under fair use for educational purposes.

Vitals Tracking

Vitals such as BPM, temperature, oxygen, hormones, blood pressure, hydration, glucose, mineral levels, and triglycerides are constantly tracked and alert the parent if any value is out of range.

Arkangel monitoring tablet displaying vitals tracking. Screenshots from Black Mirror, “Arkangel” (Brooker & Foster, 2017). Copyright 2017 by Netflix. Reproduced under fair use for educational purposes.

Optical/Auditory Feed & Filtering

The monitoring tablet can access a live optical/auditory feed, exactly what the child is seeing and hearing at any given time, and the implant can filter anything that causes a cortisol spike in the child, namely, violence, blood, and negative emotions. The optical/auditory feed can supply the parent with alerts, such as narcotic use, as seen below.

Arkangel monitoring tablet displaying live optical filtering and narcotic alert. Screenshots from Black Mirror, “Arkangel” (Brooker & Foster, 2017). Copyright 2017 by Netflix. Reproduced under fair use for educational purposes.

Optical/Auditory History

In addition to live optical/auditory monitoring, everything that a child has seen is stored in the Arkangel system history. Within history, there is a “Faces” feature where a parent can see who the child has seen and every moment they have had with that person.

Arkangel monitoring tablet displaying the home screen and then the history screen. Screenshots from Black Mirror, “Arkangel” (Brooker & Foster, 2017). Copyright 2017 by Netflix. Reproduced under fair use for educational purposes.

Arkangel monitoring tablet displaying “Moments” and “Faces” screens. Screenshots from Black Mirror, “Arkangel” (Brooker & Foster, 2017). Copyright 2017 by Netflix. Reproduced under fair use for educational purposes.

Ethical Values Overview

As time marches forward and technology continues to advance, Human-Computer Interaction professionals must heed potential ethical ramifications as the system landscape expands. Arkangel, although fictional, is not necessarily too far from becoming a feasible product that companies could produce.

Feature, value, verdict, and explanation table.

A variety of human values will be explored below, and features called out with one of the following emojis:

• ❌ indicates value violation.
• ✅ indicates value upheld.

Authenticity

“The quality of being real or true” (Cambridge Dictionary, n.d.).

Turkle (2007), in Authenticity in the Age of Digital Companions, questions whether empathy, caring, and love will be redefined in ways that replace the experience of human emotion, including complexity and contradiction. There is a trend of not prioritizing authenticity; however, this trend underscores the need for humans to rediscover authenticity within themselves in an ever-more inauthentic world.

Optical/Auditory Feed & Filtering ❌

Arkangel’s optical/auditory feed & filtering removes cortisol-spiking imagery and audio. While some parents may think that shielding their children from anything stress-inducing is an act of protection, it also poses a significant risk to authenticity. To be authentic is to engage the full range of human emotions. A cleaned-up version of the world is not real or true. In the episode, Sara’s mother is visibly upset and crying over a situation (Brooker & Foster, 2017). Sara does not see her mother’s distress and does not learn about the natural range of emotions. The filtering feature paves the way for an inauthentic human experience and, in turn, produces a human without the full range of emotions and the ability to emotionally regulate.

Human Agency

“The ability to take action or to choose what action to take” (Cambridge Dictionary, n.d.).

Human agency is central to ensuring responsible computing. Friedman & Kahn (1992) highlight two distortions that can impede proper understanding of human agency. First, a system can weaken users’ ownership of moral agency by positioning them in systematic roles without a clear understanding of their actions’ greater purpose (Friedman & Kahn, 1992). This distortion can lead to a reduced feeling of agency and erode dignity, leading to a lack of accountability (Friedman & Kahn, 1992). Second, a system can project intentions, desires, and will, thus offloading agency to the system as opposed to the user (Friedman & Kahn, 1992). The Arkangel system poses significant ethical risks to human agency.

Optical/Auditory Feed & Filtering ❌

The optical/auditory feed & filtering feature inhibits an individual's ability to choose and take action due to the filtering of the surroundings. In the Arkangel episode, Sara could not hear or see anything related to violence, including her own blood (Brooker & Foster, 2017). As a young child, she began to inflict self-harm, not understanding the significance of the injuries she was inflicting on herself. Later in the episode, Sara lashes out at her mother, who she discovers is still monitoring her optical/auditory feeds despite saying she would no longer use the system. Sara begins hitting her mother, but the filtering feature inhibits Sara from seeing how bad her mother’s wounds are. In this case, the system undermined Sara’s sense of moral agency and created the opportunity to attribute moral agency to Arkangel, thereby violating human agency and promoting irresponsible computing.

Vitals Tracking ❌

The vitals tracking feature gives parents ample room to make decisions on behalf of their children without ever consulting them. In the episode, Sara’s mother crushed up an emergency contraceptive pill and put it in Sara’s smoothie (Brooker & Foster, 2017). Sara’s pregnancy was terminated, and she was unable to make decisions about her own health due to Arkangel’s insights that her mother acted upon.

Human Autonomy

“The ability to make your own decisions without being controlled by anyone else” (Cambridge Dictionary, n.d.).

Four system facets can either encourage or undermine user autonomy: system capability, complexity, misrepresentation of the system, and fluidity (Friedman & Kahn, 2002). Users’ goals can change over time, and systems need to allow users to adapt systems to account for those changes (Friedman & Kahn, 2002). The Arkangel system does not allow for changes to accommodate a growing, changing child.

Optical/Auditory Feed & Filtering ❌

The optical/auditory feed & filtering make it impossible for a person to decide what they wish to see and hear, thereby revoking human autonomy. Additionally, this feature is permanent and cannot be deactivated by the implanted individual once they become an adult.

Informed Consent

Informed consent is an uncoerced, competent agreement to participate based on accurate information about the expected benefits and harms, which is interpreted correctly (Friedman & Kahn, 2002).

Optical/Auditory Feed & Filtering ❌

Those around Sara did not know that her mother could also see and hear them; therefore, they were unable to provide informed consent. Additionally, Sara was not allowed to offer informed consent since the implant was placed when she was a child.

Optical/Auditory History ❌

A child will not be a child forever, and the implant can never be removed. Everything a child experiences is captured in the Arkangel system, including others being recorded without their knowledge. This feature raises an informed consent issue for the person who is implanted and for every other person they encounter.

Physical Welfare

“Physical welfare concerns individuals’ biological well-being, harmed by injury, sickness, and death” (Friedman & Kahn, 2002, Human Welfare, para. 2).

Location Tracking ✅

If someone were to go missing or needed assistance, their physical welfare could be upheld, especially with the police dispatch feature.

Vitals Tracking ✅

The episode shows how Sara’s mother could see she had an iron deficiency (Brooker & Foster, 2017). With health insights at her fingertips, Sara’s mother could ensure Sara received the care she needed.

Optical/Auditory Feed & Filtering ❌

According to Proctor & Van Zandt (1994), human error involves system design shortcomings with involvement from both humans and machines. According to cognitive model suggestions, information processing in the brain progresses through stages (Proctor & Van Zandt, 1994). These stages include perception, action initiation, and finally control (Proctor & Van Zandt, 1994). When the stages produce incorrect outputs, that means an error has occurred (Proctor & Van Zandt, 1994).

Given the lack of violent imagery, there is ample room for human error. Perception is completely incorrect, so inaccurate information spreads throughout human processing. For example, an implanted individual cannot see the damage they inflict. Inappropriate actions could cause undue harm, i.e., self-harm and harm to others.

Privacy

“Privacy refers to an individual’s claim, entitlement, or right to determine what information about themselves can be communicated to others” (Schoeman, 1984, as cited in Friedman & Kahn, 2002, Privacy, para. 1).

Location Tracking ❌

The Arkangel implant is inserted into an individual when they are a child; however, the individual can grow into adulthood. Although there could be benefits to having a child’s location, once they grow up, it becomes a privacy violation.

Optical/Auditory Feed & Filtering ❌

This feature violates the privacy of the child and others. For instance, there was a sexual encounter and drug use with another individual in the episode. Neither individual involved determined that another person would see the events.

Optical/Auditory History ❌

All of an implanted individual’s memories are stored in the Arkangel system, regardless of whether they prefer the information to be shared or not.

Psychological Welfare

“Psychological welfare involves higher-order emotional states, including comfort, peace, and mental health” (Friedman & Kahn, 2002, Human Welfare, para. 4).

Optical/Auditory Feed & Filtering ✅

This feature lowers cortisol and reduces trauma. It is right in line with the adage, “Ignorance is bliss.”

Conclusion

Overall, a system like Arkangel in the real world would prove to be disastrous and extremely unethical. It is imperative not to allow good intentions to lead to terrible technologies. Every system design should include an ethical evaluation to ensure social fairness and human autonomy.

References

Brooker, C. (Writer), & Foster, J. (Director). (2017). Arkangel (Season 4, Episode 2) [TV series episode]. In C. Brooker & A. Jones (Executive Producers), Black Mirror. Netflix.

Cambridge Dictionary. (n.d.). Agency. Retrieved May 4, 2026, from https://dictionary.cambridge.org/us/dictionary/english/agency

Cambridge Dictionary. (n.d.). Authenticity. Retrieved May 4, 2026, from https://dictionary.cambridge.org/us/dictionary/english/authenticity

Cambridge Dictionary. (n.d.). Autonomy. Retrieved May 4, 2026, from https://dictionary.cambridge.org/us/dictionary/english/autonomy

Friedman, B., & Kahn, P. H., Jr. (2002). Human values, ethics, and design. In J. A. Jacko & A. Sears (Eds.), The human–computer interaction handbook: Fundamentals, evolving technologies and emerging applications (pp. 1177–1201). Erlbaum.

Proctor, R. W., & Van Zandt, T. (1994). Reliability and human error in systems. In Human factors in simple and complex systems (Chap. 3). Boston, MA: Allyn and Bacon.

Turkle, S. (2007). Authenticity in the age of digital companions. Interaction Studies, 8(3), 501–517.