Better EdTech Futures: Shaping Scotland’s approach to children’s rights and AI in schools
Scotland’s Government has used joint research from 5Rights and the Digital Futures for Children centre to shape its approach to children’s rights and AI in schools.
The Scottish Government has published a new Child Rights and Wellbeing Impact Assessment (CRWIA) to accompany its guidance on the use of AI in schools, drawing directly on research from 5Rights and the Digital Futures for Children centre (DFC).
Our joint report, A child rights audit of GenAI in EdTech: Learning from five UK case studies, was one of only four pieces of evidence used to inform the assessment, which will serve as an essential process required before introducing policies that affect children’s rights and wellbeing.
Dr. Ayca Atabey, lead author of the study, said: “Our research shows that AI in education is significantly affecting children’s rights across the UK, but not equally. Where a child lives, and the decisions adults make about how AI is procured, deployed and used in schools, shape how those rights are realised and enjoyed in practice.”
The CRWIA highlights risks identified in our research, including opaque data practices, lack of transparency and commercial exploitation of children, highlighting the urgent need for ethical, rights-respecting approaches to AI in Scottish classrooms.
Through our collaboration with DFC, based at the London School of Economics, we evaluated five widely used AI tools in UK schools against children’s rights standards. The findings revealed significant concerns: children were being tracked, chatbots were directing vulnerable users to inappropriate emergency support, and across all tools, children’s voices were missing from their design, governance, and evaluation.
Head of UK Affairs, Colette Collins-Walsh said:
“Scotland is showing real leadership by taking a rights-based approach to AI in education and placing children’s rights and wellbeing at the centre of policymaking, setting an important precedent for how emerging technologies should be governed in schools. We urge the governments in England, Northern Ireland and Wales to adopt similarly robust and proactive approaches to make sure AI and EdTech systems are safe, transparent, and designed in children’s best interests – this must become a shared priority across all UK nations.”
The Better EdTech Futures for Children project, a collaboration between the Digital Futures for Children centre at the London School of Economics and 5Rights Foundation, is working to build a stronger evidence base for change by auditing EdTech products against children’s rights standards, engaging directly with young people, and developing practical guidance for policymakers, educators, and industry. Our goal is to support the creation of an EdTech ecosystem that is not only innovative, but also accountable, inclusive, and fundamentally aligned with the rights and wellbeing of every child.