The tragedy here is that widespread abuses will water down the signal for those few high school students who do legitimately contribute to research. My wife wo

The tragedy here is that widespread abuses will water down the signal for those few high school students who do legitimately contribute to research. My wife worked in an academic hospital affiliated lab during her PhD, and every summer they had several of these children of lab friends "volunteering" as research assistants. Some were so colossally incompetent, messing up equipment or never showing up, etc. it was a net productivity loss.