News from Defend Digital Me — issue June 2024.
News from Defend Digital Me — June 2024.
We are pleased to share our new newsletter format with updates from our work. The key question and context of our work today is now:
What will the digital landscape look like in UK state education after the General Election 2024?
So far, party manifestos have promised more datafication and state surveillance for children, from Labour’s new unique ID to be assigned to every child, and both the Liberal Democrats and the Conservatives proposing a register of children not-in-school. The Lib Dems are the only party that has promised to incorporate the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child into UK law*. [*Or perhaps it should say, the rest of the UK, since Scotland and Wales already have'.]
The last attempt to create an additional register of children in the Schools Bill (2022) would have double-counted pupils already registered in Alternative Provision, and part-time in school. There is a lot of misinformation in such debates, about the different groups of children conflated into these labels and the vast amounts of data already collected on them, and in databases of children-not-in-school held by Local Authorities. All of these proposals are so far without any more detail. We’re non-partisan and it’s often the ‘how’ of the policy and unintended consequences that matter to us. So let’s see what July 5th brings. Want to support us in the year ahead? See the end of this newsletter for how.
New: Manifesto Proposals for Education and the Digital Environment
We’re more excited to look forward at what is possible. We hope that the next government will take education and the digital environment seriously, beyond the ‘ban mobile phones’, or wars on Big Tech and social media. When policy makers focus on issues of the day there is excessive time spent on arguing for a pecking order that trades off children’s protection, participation and privacy online.
Instead of an EdTech strategy or ‘datafy the kids’ approach, we offer our manifesto proposals, based on the prioritisation of people and human rights, not products first.
We include three things to start for all learners through change of policy, with legislative underpinning in an Education and Digital Rights Act—
An opt-in/out of today’s commercial reuses of national pupil records;
Student equality monitoring must be kept only as statistics (not as named data like today at the DfE);
A National Digital Office responsible for quality, standards and support for schools and families.
Save the Date
A digital rights focussed hustings event with speakers from a range of parties will be held on the evening of June 25th co-organised and hosted by a range of civil society organisations. More detail to follow for newsletter subscribers and on social media.
Looking back, our recent work in 2024 has included
Opposition to the Data Protection and Digital Information Bill, ultimately doomed in the pre-election wash up;
Revealing that the Department for Education is giving national pupil records’ access to the DWP for fraud detection;
Collaborations around concerns about the expansion of the national school census to single-out children with Down’s Syndrome.
Heard in Parliament?
EdTech
Baroness Garden of Frognal (LD) November 2023 House of Lords Question for Short Debate Educational Technology: “We have heard from Jen Persson, the director of Defend Digital Me, who writes: “To reduce the debate on edTech to questions of data processing or particular pros and cons of a single product is to misunderstand the socio-political and economic underpinning and goals of the edTech market”. Jen raises concerns that “the introduction of many common technology tools, apps and platforms into the school setting means the introduction of hundreds, often thousands, of strangers who influence a child’s life through interactions with companies and their affiliates in the digital world”.
Data Protection Bill
Stephanie Peacock (LAB) May 2023 Data Protection and Digital Information (No. 2) Bill (Third sitting) House of Commons: “Many stakeholders, from Which? to Defend Digital Me, have expressed concern that what is contained in annex 2 could seriously undermine the principle of purpose limitation.”
Biometrics in Schools
Lord Scriven (LD) November 2021 House of Lords Question for Short Debate Biometric Recognition Technologies in Schools: “My Lords, I thank my noble friend Lord Clement-Jones for instigating this very important and in fact fundamental debate about the use of biometric technology in schools. I also thank Pippa King from Biometrics in Schools, Jen Persson of Defend Digital Me, and Dr Stephanie Hare, for discussing with me some of the fundamental issues."
Online Safety
Lord McNally (LD) Online Harms White Paper (2019): “Another group, Defend Digital Me, warns against giving the Home Office carte blanche to regulate the internet, saying that children must not be the excuse that is talked up into a reason enabling greater control of the internet by the Home Office. It expresses particular concern about paragraph 21 of the White Paper.”
Can you support us?
The squeeze on civil society funding comes at a critical time for human rights in the UK and across Europe. We need all the support we can get. Every penny of our grant funds has gone into campaign work and we are always stretched to do all we can and needs done, now more than ever. We welcome offers of support and every donation. If you can donate, it will help us make a difference. Everything we receive is spent in our work to protect children’s right to privacy and ensuring that children’s data in education across England is safe, fair and transparent.
If you want to make a one-off or regular contribution to Defend Digital Me but do not wish to use this method, please contact us.
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