Navigating the Digital Classroom: Analyzing Risks To Children’s Data Protection in Educational Technology

Although educational technology (edtech) has been employed in education for centuries, digital Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) hold the potential to truly revolutionize the field. Particularly in the aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic, the proliferation of edtech in the market only increases, offering solutions to longstanding issues in education. However, the full realization of these benefits is still a distant prospect, with the changes thus far being incremental and uneven. Moreover, edtech can still yield concerning side effects, particularly regarding children’s rights to privacy and to the protection of personal data.

The thesis aims to discuss, from a legal perspective, how edtech can be deployed to benefit children's learning and development as integral human beings, without unduly infringing on their rights to privacy and the protection of personal data. Part I begins by setting the stage for the legal analysis, delving into the history of edtech, as well as the theory of data colonialism as its theoretical framework, to propose a typology of edtech. Part II discusses why children need specific privacy and data protection rights, as well as the current legal framework that realizes this special protection in Brazil and Europe. Building upon the typology developed in Part I and the legal frameworks described in Part II, Part III maps the challenges concerning children’s privacy and data protection arising from edtech. It also provides a case study analyzing the implementation of Google Workspace for Education in both regions.