The recent symposium “Datafied by Default” at the AARE conference in Sydney in December brought together 13 Centre members across three nodes and two international visiting fellows to examine the pervasive datafication of children through educational technologies (EdTech). This multidisciplinary gathering builds upon the work of a recent Special Issue by the same title published in Computers and Education Open guest edited by Tiffani Apps, Rebecca Ng and myself. Most importantly, the special issue and symposium highlighted the need to disrupt or bring into question our uncontested relationships with data within schools.

The symposium opened with a presentation by international visiting fellows Marie Utterberg Modén and Svea Kiesewetter from the University of Gothenburg, Sweden. Marie shared a compelling narrative of Swedish children’s daily interactions with digital technologies, illustrating how their access to education inherently involves datafication. Expanding from this local lens to a global perspective, she introduced the InfraReveal platform. This tool visualises data generation and movement in EdTech, enabling collective learning about data flows, privacy concerns, and environmental consequences. Collaborating with colleagues Thomas Hillman and Svea Kiesewetter, Marie has worked with children to foster greater awareness of these processes.

Chis Zomer followed by presenting the EdTech database project, which uses a “database-as-method”approach to map EdTech trends. The project facilitates stakeholder engagement through data privacy experiments and app-related data visualisations. This systematic mapping creates new research pathways and informs policy development.

Michelle Cook presented her PhD work-in-progress, highlighting the absence of young children’s voices in digital rights discourse. Her proposed research focuses on engaging Australian children under eight years old in policy discussions about their digital experiences, addressing a critical gap in current research.

A project examining social media use in schools was next, led by Tiffani Apps, Claire Rogerson and myself. Building on our earlier “schoolfeeds” work, this presentation explored collaborative policymaking through hybrid forums, encouraging democratic participation as a counterpoint to passive datafication in schools.

Anna Bunn and Madeline Dobson examined the research environment for digital childhoods post-COVID-19. They noted how restrictive policies in Australian public schools have hampered research efforts, limiting children’s opportunities to share their digital experiences.

The symposium concluded with thoughtful reflections from Distinguished Professor Susan Danby and Dr. Rebecca Ng. Their discussions returned to children’s rights, emphasising power dynamics in research and advocating for curiosity and innovation in exploring digital childhoods.

Key themes emerged throughout the symposium:

• Children’s Rights are Non-Negotiable: As Michelle Cook asserted, upholding children’s rights must remain central to education research and policy development.
• Democratic Participation in Research: Presenters underscored the importance of engaging stakeholders—especially children—in shaping policies about digital environments.
• Critical Scrutiny of EdTech: The growing reliance on EdTech in schools demands rigorous examination of its educational value, unintended consequences, and commercial interests.

The symposium highlighted the urgent need to question and disrupt unexamined relationships with data in education. Presentations explored how datafication occurs across multiple levels, from government regulations and education policies to classroom practices and children’s everyday interactions with digital platforms.

By making these processes visible, the symposium invited fresh inquiries into how digital technologies shape education systems and affect children’s rights. In an era where education technologies are embedded in an extraction-driven data economy, such discussions are more critical than ever.