Ethical Design for Edtech Platforms – An Analysis of Google Classroom via a Code of Design Practices
Abstract
Introduction: The widespread adoption of EdTech platforms in schools exposes children to significant risks that confict with their rights under the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC). These risks include the opaque collection and processing of personal data for non-educational purposes, the use of this data for commercial profiling, and a lack of user control, which undermines their rights to privacy and protection from economic exploitation. Objective: This paper aims to address these risks by developing a practical ethical design guide. The guide is intended to empower educational institutions to assess and select EdTech platforms that are designed to proactively protect children’s rights. Methodology or Steps: The guide was developed through a multi-phase process: a review of academic and gray literature to identify best practices, systematic categorization of these practices into ten key areas, and alignment with legal frameworks like Brazil’s General Data Protection Law (LGPD) and CONANDA Resolution N° 245. Results: The primary result is an ethical design guide composed of 12 actionable practices for evaluating EdTech platforms. The guide’s utility is demonstrated through a critical analysis of Google Classroom, highlighting how the framework can identify specifc data protection and ethical shortcomings in widely used educational software, thereby providing a tangible tool for fostering safer digital learning environments.
Keywords:
Edtechs, Ethical Design, Deceptive Design, Platforms
References
Apps, T., Beckman, K., e Ng, R. (2024). Datafed by default: Examining the intersect between children’s digital rights and education.
Assembly, U. N. G. e Directorate, C. H. R. (1991). Convention on the Rights of the Child. Human Rights Directorate.
Batista, L., Pereira, M. C. M., Canto, M., Amaral, P., Neto, P. S., Saraiva, R. L., e Valois, R. (2024). Termômetro do acesso adequado à idade: endereçando o acesso apropriado para crianças e adolescentes em plataformas digitais. IP.Rec.
Brazil (2018). Lei nº 13.709, de 14 de agosto de 2018 - lei geral de proteção de dados pessoais (lgpd). Published in the Diário Oficial da União on August 15, 2018.
Brignull, H., Leiser, M., Santos, C., e Doshi, K. (2023). Deceptive patterns – user interfaces designed to trick you.
Colvert, A., Pothong, K., e Livingstone, S. (2024). Playful by design: Embedding children’s rights into the digital world. Games Research and Practice.
Day, E. (2021). Governance of data for children’s learning in uk state schools. Technical report, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
de Oliveira, L. C., Amaral, M. A. a., Bim, S. A., Valença, G., Almeida, L. D. A., Salgado, L. C. d. C., Gasparini, I., e da Silva, C. B. R. (2024). Grandihc-br 2025-2035 - gc3: Plurality and decoloniality in hci. In Proceedings of the XXIII Brazilian Symposium on Human Factors in Computing Systems, IHC ’24. Association for Computing Machinery.
eSafety Commissioner (2025). Behind the screen: The reality of age assurance and social media access for young australians. Technical report, Australian Government.
Fansher, M., Chivukula, S. S., e Gray, C. M. (2018). darkpatterns: Ux practitioner conversations about ethical design. In Extended Abstracts of the 2018 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems, CHI EA ’18, page 1–6, New York, NY, USA. Association for Computing Machinery.
Greenberg, S., Boring, S., Vermeulen, J., e Dostal, J. (2014). Dark patterns in proxemic interactions. Proceedings of the 2014 conference on Designing interactive systems - DIS ’14.
Hooper, L., Livingstone, S., e Pothong, K. (2022). Problems with data governance in uk schools: the cases of google classroom and classdojo. Technical report, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
Kollmer, T. e Eckhardt, A. (2022). Dark patterns. Business & Information Systems Engineering, 65.
Lacey, C. e Caudwell, C. (2019). Cuteness as a ‘dark pattern’ in home robots. 2019 14th ACM/IEEE International Conference on Human-Robot Interaction (HRI).
Livingstone, S., Atabey, A., e Pothong, K. (2021). Addressing the problems and realising the benefits of processing children’s education data: Report on an expert roundtable. Technical report, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
Livingstone, S., Cantwell, N., Özkul, D., Shekhawat, G., e Kidron, B. (2024a). The best interests of the child in the digital environment. Technical report, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
Livingstone, S. e Pothong, K. (2023). Child rights by design: Guidance for innovators of digital products and services used by children. Digital Futures Commission.
Livingstone, S., Pothong, K., Atabey, A., Hooper, L., e Day, E. (2024b). The googlization of the classroom: Is the uk in protecting children’s data and rights? Computers and Education Open, 7:100195–100195.
Livingstone, S. e Stoilova, M. (2021). The 4Cs: Classifying Online Risk to Children. CO:RE Short Report Series on Key Topics. Leibniz-Institut für Medienforschung | Hans-Bredow-Institut (HBI), Hamburg.
Lundgren, B. (2023). In defense of ethical guidelines. AI and Ethics, 3(3):1013–1020.
Mathur, A., Acar, G., Friedman, M. J., Lucherini, E., Mayer, J., Chetty, M., e Narayanan, A. (2019). Dark patterns at scale: Findings from a crawl of 11k shopping websites. Proceedings of the ACM on Human-Computer Interaction, 3:1–32.
Michael, K. (2024). Mitigating risk and ensuring human fourishing using design standards: Ieee 2089-2021 an age appropriate digital services framework for children. IEEE Transactions on Technology and Society, pages 1–13.
Milkaite, I., De Wolf, R., Lievens, E., De Leyn, T., e Martens, M. (2021). Children’s reflections on privacy and the protection of their personal data: A child-centric approach to data protection information formats. Children and Youth Services Review, 129:106170.
Milkaite, I. e Lievens, E. (2020). Child-friendly transparency of data processing in the eu: from legal requirements to platform policies. Journal of Children and Media, 14(1):5–21.
National Council for the Rights of Children and Adolescents - CONANDA (2024). Resolução nº 245, de 5 de abril de 2024. Published in the Diário Ofcial da União on April 5, 2024.
Núcleo de Informação e Coordenação do Ponto BR (2024). Pesquisa sobre o uso da internet por crianças e adolescentes no brasil: Tic kids online brasil, ano 2024. Disponível em: [link]. Acessado em: 25 de agosto de 2025.
Pangrazio, L. e Bunn, A. (2024). Assessing the privacy of digital products in australian schools: Protecting the digital rights of children and young people. Computers and Education Open, 6:100187.
Pothong, K., Hooper, L., Livingstone, S., Atabey, A., e Day, E. (2024a). The ‘googlisation’ of the classroom: How does the protection of children’s personal data fare? AoIR Selected Papers of Internet Research.
Pothong, K., Livingstone, S., Colvert, A., e Pschetz, L. (2024b). Applying children’s rights to digital products: Exploring competing priorities in design. In Proceedings of the 23rd Annual ACM Interaction Design and Children Conference, IDC ’24, page 93–104, New York, NY, USA. Association for Computing Machinery.
Sánchez Chamorro, L., Bongard-Blanchy, K., e Koenig, V. (2023). Ethical tensions in ux design practice: Exploring the fine line between persuasion and manipulation in online interfaces. In Proceedings of the 2023 ACM Designing Interactive Systems Conference, DIS ’23, page 2408–2422, New York, NY, USA. Association for Computing Machinery.
Singer, N. (2023). U.s. regulators propose new online privacy safeguards for children. The New York Times.
Tilsner, M., Fiech, A., Zhan, G., e Specht, T. (2011). Patterns for service composition. CiteSeer X (The Pennsylvania State University), pages 133–137.
Valença, G., Sarinho, M. W., Polito, V., e Lins, F. (2022). Do platforms care about your child’s data? a proposal of legal requirements for children’s privacy and protection. In WER.
Valença, G., Silva, J. V., Rocha, B., e Cortiz, D. (2024). Children’s rights not deceptive patterns by design: a requirements perspective. In Proceedings of the XXIII Brazilian Symposium on Human Factors in Computing Systems, pages 1–11.
Zagal, J. P., Björk, S., e Lewis, C. (2013). Dark patterns in the design of games. Foundations of Digital Games, pages 39–46.
Assembly, U. N. G. e Directorate, C. H. R. (1991). Convention on the Rights of the Child. Human Rights Directorate.
Batista, L., Pereira, M. C. M., Canto, M., Amaral, P., Neto, P. S., Saraiva, R. L., e Valois, R. (2024). Termômetro do acesso adequado à idade: endereçando o acesso apropriado para crianças e adolescentes em plataformas digitais. IP.Rec.
Brazil (2018). Lei nº 13.709, de 14 de agosto de 2018 - lei geral de proteção de dados pessoais (lgpd). Published in the Diário Oficial da União on August 15, 2018.
Brignull, H., Leiser, M., Santos, C., e Doshi, K. (2023). Deceptive patterns – user interfaces designed to trick you.
Colvert, A., Pothong, K., e Livingstone, S. (2024). Playful by design: Embedding children’s rights into the digital world. Games Research and Practice.
Day, E. (2021). Governance of data for children’s learning in uk state schools. Technical report, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
de Oliveira, L. C., Amaral, M. A. a., Bim, S. A., Valença, G., Almeida, L. D. A., Salgado, L. C. d. C., Gasparini, I., e da Silva, C. B. R. (2024). Grandihc-br 2025-2035 - gc3: Plurality and decoloniality in hci. In Proceedings of the XXIII Brazilian Symposium on Human Factors in Computing Systems, IHC ’24. Association for Computing Machinery.
eSafety Commissioner (2025). Behind the screen: The reality of age assurance and social media access for young australians. Technical report, Australian Government.
Fansher, M., Chivukula, S. S., e Gray, C. M. (2018). darkpatterns: Ux practitioner conversations about ethical design. In Extended Abstracts of the 2018 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems, CHI EA ’18, page 1–6, New York, NY, USA. Association for Computing Machinery.
Greenberg, S., Boring, S., Vermeulen, J., e Dostal, J. (2014). Dark patterns in proxemic interactions. Proceedings of the 2014 conference on Designing interactive systems - DIS ’14.
Hooper, L., Livingstone, S., e Pothong, K. (2022). Problems with data governance in uk schools: the cases of google classroom and classdojo. Technical report, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
Kollmer, T. e Eckhardt, A. (2022). Dark patterns. Business & Information Systems Engineering, 65.
Lacey, C. e Caudwell, C. (2019). Cuteness as a ‘dark pattern’ in home robots. 2019 14th ACM/IEEE International Conference on Human-Robot Interaction (HRI).
Livingstone, S., Atabey, A., e Pothong, K. (2021). Addressing the problems and realising the benefits of processing children’s education data: Report on an expert roundtable. Technical report, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
Livingstone, S., Cantwell, N., Özkul, D., Shekhawat, G., e Kidron, B. (2024a). The best interests of the child in the digital environment. Technical report, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
Livingstone, S. e Pothong, K. (2023). Child rights by design: Guidance for innovators of digital products and services used by children. Digital Futures Commission.
Livingstone, S., Pothong, K., Atabey, A., Hooper, L., e Day, E. (2024b). The googlization of the classroom: Is the uk in protecting children’s data and rights? Computers and Education Open, 7:100195–100195.
Livingstone, S. e Stoilova, M. (2021). The 4Cs: Classifying Online Risk to Children. CO:RE Short Report Series on Key Topics. Leibniz-Institut für Medienforschung | Hans-Bredow-Institut (HBI), Hamburg.
Lundgren, B. (2023). In defense of ethical guidelines. AI and Ethics, 3(3):1013–1020.
Mathur, A., Acar, G., Friedman, M. J., Lucherini, E., Mayer, J., Chetty, M., e Narayanan, A. (2019). Dark patterns at scale: Findings from a crawl of 11k shopping websites. Proceedings of the ACM on Human-Computer Interaction, 3:1–32.
Michael, K. (2024). Mitigating risk and ensuring human fourishing using design standards: Ieee 2089-2021 an age appropriate digital services framework for children. IEEE Transactions on Technology and Society, pages 1–13.
Milkaite, I., De Wolf, R., Lievens, E., De Leyn, T., e Martens, M. (2021). Children’s reflections on privacy and the protection of their personal data: A child-centric approach to data protection information formats. Children and Youth Services Review, 129:106170.
Milkaite, I. e Lievens, E. (2020). Child-friendly transparency of data processing in the eu: from legal requirements to platform policies. Journal of Children and Media, 14(1):5–21.
National Council for the Rights of Children and Adolescents - CONANDA (2024). Resolução nº 245, de 5 de abril de 2024. Published in the Diário Ofcial da União on April 5, 2024.
Núcleo de Informação e Coordenação do Ponto BR (2024). Pesquisa sobre o uso da internet por crianças e adolescentes no brasil: Tic kids online brasil, ano 2024. Disponível em: [link]. Acessado em: 25 de agosto de 2025.
Pangrazio, L. e Bunn, A. (2024). Assessing the privacy of digital products in australian schools: Protecting the digital rights of children and young people. Computers and Education Open, 6:100187.
Pothong, K., Hooper, L., Livingstone, S., Atabey, A., e Day, E. (2024a). The ‘googlisation’ of the classroom: How does the protection of children’s personal data fare? AoIR Selected Papers of Internet Research.
Pothong, K., Livingstone, S., Colvert, A., e Pschetz, L. (2024b). Applying children’s rights to digital products: Exploring competing priorities in design. In Proceedings of the 23rd Annual ACM Interaction Design and Children Conference, IDC ’24, page 93–104, New York, NY, USA. Association for Computing Machinery.
Sánchez Chamorro, L., Bongard-Blanchy, K., e Koenig, V. (2023). Ethical tensions in ux design practice: Exploring the fine line between persuasion and manipulation in online interfaces. In Proceedings of the 2023 ACM Designing Interactive Systems Conference, DIS ’23, page 2408–2422, New York, NY, USA. Association for Computing Machinery.
Singer, N. (2023). U.s. regulators propose new online privacy safeguards for children. The New York Times.
Tilsner, M., Fiech, A., Zhan, G., e Specht, T. (2011). Patterns for service composition. CiteSeer X (The Pennsylvania State University), pages 133–137.
Valença, G., Sarinho, M. W., Polito, V., e Lins, F. (2022). Do platforms care about your child’s data? a proposal of legal requirements for children’s privacy and protection. In WER.
Valença, G., Silva, J. V., Rocha, B., e Cortiz, D. (2024). Children’s rights not deceptive patterns by design: a requirements perspective. In Proceedings of the XXIII Brazilian Symposium on Human Factors in Computing Systems, pages 1–11.
Zagal, J. P., Björk, S., e Lewis, C. (2013). Dark patterns in the design of games. Foundations of Digital Games, pages 39–46.
Published
2025-09-08
How to Cite
PEREIRA, Steffano; REBELO, Maria Eduarda; VALENÇA, George.
Ethical Design for Edtech Platforms – An Analysis of Google Classroom via a Code of Design Practices. In: BRAZILIAN SYMPOSIUM ON HUMAN FACTORS IN COMPUTATIONAL SYSTEMS (IHC), 24. , 2025, Belo Horizonte/MG.
Anais [...].
Porto Alegre: Sociedade Brasileira de Computação,
2025
.
p. 535-554.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.5753/ihc.2025.10797.
