# China's Social Credit System for a practice Explore PT?

**URL:** <https://forum.code.org/t/chinas-social-credit-system-for-a-practice-explore-pt/11352>\
**Category:** AP Prep\
**Created:** [October 23, 2017, 11:09pm UTC](https://forum.code.org/t/chinas-social-credit-system-for-a-practice-explore-pt/11352 "2017-10-23T23:09:29Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 2\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![dsawyer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/f05b48/32.png) [@dsawyer](https://forum.code.org/u/dsawyer)\
**Post date:** [October 23, 2017, 11:09pm UTC](https://forum.code.org/t/chinas-social-credit-system-for-a-practice-explore-pt/11352/1 "2017-10-23T23:09:29Z")

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I’m thinking of having my class research China’s proposed Social Credit system as a practice Explore PT. However the system is still underdevelopment and is not actually deployed. Is this an acceptable topic for an Explore PT?

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**Author:** ![kaitie\_o\_bryan](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex016/user_avatar/forum.code.org/kaitie_o_bryan/32/2278_2.png) [@kaitie\_o\_bryan](https://forum.code.org/u/kaitie_o_bryan)\
**Post date:** [October 24, 2017, 12:32am UTC](https://forum.code.org/t/chinas-social-credit-system-for-a-practice-explore-pt/11352/2 "2017-10-24T00:32:30Z")

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Hi @dsawyer,

First, this was a fascinating topic to read about! I hadn’t seen it before but I love how this is relevant to impact of computing! Now…

According to the College Board rubric, they define a “computing innovation” as follows:

“A computing innovation is an innovation that includes a computer or program code as an integral part of its functionality.”

AND

“Computing innovations may be physical computing innovations such as Google glasses or self-driving cars, non-physical computer software like a cell phone app, or computing concepts such as ecommerce  
or social networking which rely on physical transactions conducted on the Internet.”

In their examples provided, they do give a non-example as well: “The innovation, near field communication (NFC), is not a computing innovation; rather, it is a standard that allows computing innovations to transfer data between them when they are close together.”

SO, with that (and based on my limited research on the Social Credit System), I would be weary of having students use this as a REAL explore topic - but to be honest, I am not sure where the line is between “a standard that allows computing innovations to do things” and “computing concepts” lies. That being said, I think the topic certainly shows the impact of computing in society and could be a good way to get students to practice writing about benefits and harms caused by technology.

@bhatnagars any thoughts on this?

KT