As artificial intelligence rapidly integrates into classrooms, questions are emerging about how these technologies affect children's privacy, participation, and overall wellbeing.

In the latest episode of the European Schoolnet podcast, AI in EdTech:  an audit on children's rights and learning, we are joined by Professor Sonia Livingstone and Dr Ayça Atabey from the Digital Futures for Children Centre to discuss their recent report, A Child Rights Audit on Gen-AI in EdTech.

The conversation explores how generative AI (GenAI) is increasingly embedded in educational tools and platforms, often without children's voices being included in their design or governance, and what a genuine child-rights-based approach to EdTech could look like.

AI and Children's Rights: The Need for Evidence and Transparency

While AI promises to personalise learning and reduce teacher workload, Livingstone and Atabey highlight significant risks. Many AI tools collect and process children's data in opaque ways, sometimes exposing them to commercial tracking or biased content. Their audit of five widely used GenAI educational tools revealed recurring issues, such as:

- Unclear data practices and lack of transparency

- Default tracking and profiling of users

- Limited or no mechanisms for children to seek redress

- Absence of children's perspectives in design and evaluation

"Schools are becoming testing grounds for AI services," says Professor Livingstone, "but often without clear evidence of educational benefit or adequate safeguards for privacy and wellbeing."

Balancing Innovation with Ethics

Despite these concerns, both experts underline that AI is not inherently good or bad, it depends on how it is designed and governed. When developed responsibly, AI tools can provide real educational value. For example, adaptive writing tools and assistive technologies can support children with learning difficulties or disabilities, enabling more inclusive and creative participation.

However, Dr Atabey emphasises the importance of independent, research-based evidence to verify claims made by EdTech companies. "Most tools make strong promises about improving learning outcomes," she notes, "but we found little empirical data to support them. A rights-based approach ensures children are not treated as test subjects but as active participants in shaping their digital learning environments."

Human-like AI and the Question of Social Interaction

The episode also examines the emerging use of empathy-driven chatbots and "human-like" AI systems. While such tools could offer personalised learning or even emotional support, they also blur boundaries between human and machine interaction. Livingstone warns that these systems may unintentionally replace genuine social exchanges and shift authority from teachers to technology.

"Children are already using generative AI tools, often ahead of adults and policymakers," she explains. "The challenge now is not just whether we should allow them, but how to ensure these tools align with educational and ethical principles."

Towards a Child-Rights-Based Digital Future

The discussion calls for stronger policy frameworks and clearer accountability for the use of AI in education. Placing children's rights at the centre means ensuring transparency, participation, and fairness in how technologies are developed and deployed.

"GenAI is powerful," concludes Atabey. "Whether it empowers children or undermines their rights depends on the choices we make in design, regulation, and classroom practice."

For the full report discussed in this podcast: A child rights audit on GenAI in EdTech read here.

This report advances the DFC's and 5Rights' research on A better Edtech future for children and builds on our earlier DFC research on EdTech and education data. The Digital Futures for Children centre acknowledges funding from the 5Rights Foundation. This joint LSE and 5Rights research centre support an evidence base for advocacy, facilitates dialogue between academics and policymakers and amplifies children's voices, following the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child's General comment No. 25.

About Agile EDU :

This podcast is part of the Agile EDU project co-funded by the European Union and whose aim is to support inclusive and high-quality digital education, focusing on offering  evidence from research and practice, and policy initiatives, on the use of data about student learning. The project runs for a  three-year period. So far, Agile EDU has facilitated the exchange of knowledge among education authorities during expert workshops and dialogue labs and produced a literature review,  nine case studies and 18 learning stories on the use of data about students learning  and a MOOC targeting teachers. A final report will provide guidelines and recommendations on the topic for education stakeholders to be presented in December 2025 at EMINENT 2025. This is a project coordinated by European Schoolnet and with partners from the University College Copenhagen (Denmark), University of Oslo (Norway), Portuguese Ministry of Education (Portugal), Foundation Empieza por Educar (Spain), and the Swedish Association of Local Authorities and Regions (Sweden); with the French and Slovenian Ministries of Education are associated partners.

About The Digital Futures for Children Centre:

The Digital Futures for Children Centre is a collaboration between the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE) and the Five Rights Foundation, dedicated to promoting evidence-based, rights-driven approaches to children's digital futures.

 

Listen to the full episode of the European Schoolnet Podcast: AI in EdTech – An Audit on Children's Rights and Learning.

 

Funded by the European Union. Views and opinions expressed are however those of the author(s) only and do not necessarily reflect those of the European Union or the European Education and Culture Executive Agency (EACEA). Neither the European Union nor EACEA can be held responsible for them.

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