Children as Data Subjects: Families, Schools, and Everyday Lives

In this chapter, we bring together three strands of empirical research across three contexts addressing how children are increasingly subject to digitized and datafied monitoring and surveillance of their lives. Our collaborative writing process braids together research on the datafication of childhood across three international contexts: media discourse on ‘sharenting’ in the US, privacy practices in Italian families, and anticipation of pupils’ futures in secondary schools in England (UK). Throughout and between these empirical examples, we explore themes of neoliberalism, subjectification, risk, and decision-making, and highlight how asymmetric power relations become embedded in data flows and practices. By making these commonalities visible across contexts, this chapter contributes towards arguments for adopting a data justice approach as a potential resistance and response to the datafication of childhood. We argue that, while data justice remains a future ideal for most children (and adults) around the world, there is an urgent need for intervention and action, in the form of greater governmental regulation and the inclusion of diverse children’s voices and experiences in decision-making.