Time for a Code of Practice for tech used in schools
School is compulsory for children, but in this setting central to their welfare and development their rights are currently being widely abused by technology used in the classroom, with little evidence of learning benefits and schools and parents left powerless. 5Rights and the Digital Futures for Children centre support amendment 146 to the UK Data Protection and Digital Information Bill mandating a Code of Practice and Certification scheme for EdTech, to support schools, build trust in EdTech, and ensure children benefit.
Since the Covid-19 pandemic, schools have increasingly integrated education technology – or EdTech – into classrooms, back-offices, and children’s homes. Little attention has however been paid to children’s rights and the data practices of EdTech companies. The result, as demonstrated by research conducted by the joint LSE-5Rights Digital Futures for Children centre (DFC), is that:
- Children’s data leaks out of schools and is used for commercial and profiling purposes including research, product development, advertising and training of AI.
- EdTech engages in social profiling of children often to manipulate their behaviour, resulting in risks of discrimination.
- EdTech claims in respect of educational value are unsubstantiated.
- Within schools, constant surveillance, monitoring and recording of children’s offline and online activity can result in records of the child’s actual and imputed educational achievement and other abilities that may follow them into adulthood, potentially limiting their future opportunities.
A Code of Practice for EdTech would make it easier for schools to use technology for the benefit of children confidently and in a way that respects child rights and creates pathways for beneficial sharing of education data for innovation. This would build trust in EdTech and boost adoption by schools and parents. EdTech providers would know what standards they should meet and how to meet them. To this end, we support Amendment 146 introduced by 5Rights Chair Baroness Beeban Kidron to the UK Data Protection and Digital Information Bill calling for a Code of Practice for EdTech supported by a certification scheme.
Our DFC report, ‘Problems with Data Governance in UK Schools: the cases of Google Classroom and ClassDojo’ demonstrated that it is almost impossible to know what data is collected and what is done with it. EdTech companies rely on impenetrable data protection and privacy policies to harvest children’s data for their own benefit.
Meanwhile across Europe and the USA regulatory and legal action has shown time and again that EdTech used in schools has breached data protection laws and children’s rights.
There is often little evidence to support the claimed learning benefits. There is a lack of benchmarks for what benefits children interacting with EdTech. Our reports found that experts, schools and teachers share concerns about this lack of evidence and what truly is in children’s benefit in education. According to our nationally representative survey, children also have mixed views about the EdTech products they use in school, and some children doubt the benefits.
Schools and parents lack the technical and legal expertise to understand what data is collected. Schools are expected to make decisions on EdTech procurement and negotiate complex contracts with EdTech providers and are overburdened with the legal and financial responsibility to choose data protection compliant EdTech products. It is not a fair fight between multinational corporations and individual schools. Schools are worried about how children’s data is used and whether it is sufficiently protected. In practice, they have limited control or oversight over how children’s data is used by EdTech.
EdTech needs to be safe and trusted. 5Rights and the Digital Futures for Children centre are calling for a Code of Practice to provide guardrails for rights-respecting innovation and enable the development of a trusted data infrastructure to the benefit of children, parents, schools, businesses and the public purse.
Good regulation should be fair and help build trust in EdTech to ensure the continued use of innovative technologies by schools, children, parents or caregivers. Failing to regulate and leaving schools to navigate complex laws and technology can and is leading to schools abandoning or rejecting EdTech even where it has the capacity to help.
A Code of Practice for EdTech supported by a certification scheme would make it easier for schools to use technology for the benefit of children confidently and in a way that respects child rights and create pathways for beneficial sharing of education data for innovation.
A Code of Practice supported by a Certification Scheme would:
- reduce the burden on schools as data controllers and educational providers;
- help them identify products that protect children’s data rights, uphold the rights of the child, and provide educational benefits.
This would build trust in EdTech and boost adoption by schools and parents. EdTech providers would know what standards they should meet and how to meet them.
Shifting at least part of the burden of demonstrating compliance away from schools and onto the companies that make profit from children’s data obtained in education should lead to a more equal playing field where schools can see the real benefits of available technology whilst ensuring the protection of children without being overburdened.
The Blueprint for Education Data, which was the culmination of three years’ multidisciplinary, multi-stakeholder work including some technology companies, sets out clear criteria for a pro-innovation, rights respecting framework for EdTech.
