“EdTech at the crossroads: Does technology really support learning, or does profit overrule rights?”<\/span><\/strong><\/h5>\nProfessor Sonia Livingstone,\u00a0Department of Media and Communications,\u00a0The London School of Economics and Political Science, UK<\/span><\/h5>\n<\/td>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.mlearning-conf.org\/oldconferences\/2026\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/54531413163_9371b80d60_o1-scaled-e1762292127734.jpg\")
<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\nAbstract<\/strong><\/p>\nIn high-income countries, politicians are banning children\u2019s use of smartphones at school and social media at home, while in lower-income countries, technology is lauded as a way to leapfrog disadvantage, especially in education. So what does good look like for children\u2019s learning in a digital world? This lecture will adopt a child rights framework to ask critical questions, with a particular focus on educational technologies and their implications for children\u2019s learning, agency, privacy, safety, and participation. I will draw on new findings from our current research project, \u201cBetter EdTech Futures for Children,\u201d to illuminate the conundrum of whether technology companies are respecting, even advancing, children\u2019s rights and, if not, what we should do about it.<\/p>\n
Bio<\/strong><\/p>\nSonia Livingstone OBE FBA, Professor, Department of Media and Communications, London School of Economics and Political Science. Sonia has published 21 books on media audiences, children and young people\u2019s risks and opportunities, media literacy and rights in the digital environment. Since founding the EC-funded \u201cEU Kids Online\u201d research network, and Global Kids Online (with UNICEF), she has advised the European Commission, European Parliament, Council of Europe UN Committee on the Rights of the Child, OECD, ITU, UNICEF and UN Committee on the Rights of the Child. She leads the Digital Futures for Children Centre at LSE with 5Rights Foundation.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
\u200b “EdTech at the crossroads: Does technology really support learning, or does profit overrule rights?” Professor Sonia Livingstone,\u00a0Department of Media and Communications,\u00a0The London School of Economics and Political Science, UK Abstract In high-income countries, politicians are banning children\u2019s use of smartphones at school and social media at home, while in lower-income countries, technology is lauded […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-402","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mlearning-conf.org\/oldconferences\/2026\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/402","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mlearning-conf.org\/oldconferences\/2026\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mlearning-conf.org\/oldconferences\/2026\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mlearning-conf.org\/oldconferences\/2026\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mlearning-conf.org\/oldconferences\/2026\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=402"}],"version-history":[{"count":71,"href":"https:\/\/www.mlearning-conf.org\/oldconferences\/2026\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/402\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2217,"href":"https:\/\/www.mlearning-conf.org\/oldconferences\/2026\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/402\/revisions\/2217"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mlearning-conf.org\/oldconferences\/2026\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=402"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\nAbstract<\/strong><\/p>\n In high-income countries, politicians are banning children\u2019s use of smartphones at school and social media at home, while in lower-income countries, technology is lauded as a way to leapfrog disadvantage, especially in education. So what does good look like for children\u2019s learning in a digital world? This lecture will adopt a child rights framework to ask critical questions, with a particular focus on educational technologies and their implications for children\u2019s learning, agency, privacy, safety, and participation. I will draw on new findings from our current research project, \u201cBetter EdTech Futures for Children,\u201d to illuminate the conundrum of whether technology companies are respecting, even advancing, children\u2019s rights and, if not, what we should do about it.<\/p>\n Bio<\/strong><\/p>\n Sonia Livingstone OBE FBA, Professor, Department of Media and Communications, London School of Economics and Political Science. Sonia has published 21 books on media audiences, children and young people\u2019s risks and opportunities, media literacy and rights in the digital environment. Since founding the EC-funded \u201cEU Kids Online\u201d research network, and Global Kids Online (with UNICEF), she has advised the European Commission, European Parliament, Council of Europe UN Committee on the Rights of the Child, OECD, ITU, UNICEF and UN Committee on the Rights of the Child. She leads the Digital Futures for Children Centre at LSE with 5Rights Foundation.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" \u200b “EdTech at the crossroads: Does technology really support learning, or does profit overrule rights?” Professor Sonia Livingstone,\u00a0Department of Media and Communications,\u00a0The London School of Economics and Political Science, UK Abstract In high-income countries, politicians are banning children\u2019s use of smartphones at school and social media at home, while in lower-income countries, technology is lauded […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-402","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mlearning-conf.org\/oldconferences\/2026\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/402","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mlearning-conf.org\/oldconferences\/2026\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mlearning-conf.org\/oldconferences\/2026\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mlearning-conf.org\/oldconferences\/2026\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mlearning-conf.org\/oldconferences\/2026\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=402"}],"version-history":[{"count":71,"href":"https:\/\/www.mlearning-conf.org\/oldconferences\/2026\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/402\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2217,"href":"https:\/\/www.mlearning-conf.org\/oldconferences\/2026\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/402\/revisions\/2217"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mlearning-conf.org\/oldconferences\/2026\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=402"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}