Childhood is increasingly digital – and this report is relevant to anyone whose work focuses on children’s lives and the long term implications of our relationship with technology.  

How children play, learn, and socialise happens largely through platforms and devices which are almost all powered by data. This makes it more important than ever to understand how that data is shared and used – and this digital environment doesn’t stay still.  

In Year Three of Children’s Data Lives, most children are now using AI, a rapid development from Year Two where very few were. School apps and learning platforms give parents new ways to see into their children’s lives, from homework to behaviour points. Mobile games and social media, both easy to access and hard to put down, continue to monetise children’s time, attention, and information. 

Children’s online lives are everywhere in public conversation right now. Social media bans for teenagers. Age verification rules. Warnings about AI chatbots. Most of this debate happens without anyone actually watching what children do, or asking them why. 

Children’s Data Lives takes a different approach. We don’t just ask children how their data is used and take their answers at face value. We look at their wider life first. We film them on the platforms they’re on every day. We sign up to the same apps and devices. We speak to families as they navigate the small, constant decisions that add up to a childhood lived partly online. 

The full report goes into what we found when we watched all of this play out in children’s actual lives.