In 2026, with the entry into force of the Digital Protection of Children and Adolescents Act ( signed into law on September 17, 2025, and effective six months after publication—that is, on March 17, 2026), the digital environment will undergo changes, creating new challenges that require a deeper understanding. Check out the key highlights below.

In addition to the text, I created an AI Agent to help explain what the Digital ECA is and how it works in its various aspects. Access the AI Agent here.

1. The Expanded Scope: The School as a Legally Recognized Digital Environment

The law stipulates that any technology product or service intended for, or likely to be accessed by, children and adolescents must operate under the principles of priority protection and the best interests of the child. This includes internet applications, software, operating systems, app stores, and connected games.

The regulation consolidates principles already set forth in the Statute of Children and Adolescents (1990), the Brazilian Civil Rights Framework for the Internet (2014), and the General Data Protection Law (2018), organizing them under a specific framework for children online.

The key issue is not merely technical—it is structural. Schools are no longer merely users of tools; they have become part of a digital ecosystem that must be designed with the same care as physical spaces.

When a teacher adopts a platform, creates a digital group, or integrates an app into instructional activities, that environment becomes part of the educational process. And, according to the law, the educational process requires:

• Comprehensive protection;
• Prevalence of the best interests;
• Protection against abuse and intimidation;
• Transparency in data processing;
• Promoting critical digital literacy.

This shifts the logic of technological choice, placing the variables of protection and respect for development within the functional framework.

2. Data Governance and Profiling: The Limits of Educational Analysis

The law defines “profiling” as any form of data processing used to classify or infer behavior, preferences, interests, or personal characteristics. It also prohibits the use of profiling for targeted advertising to children and adolescents.

In the school ecosystem, this directly affects adaptive platforms, recommendation systems, and analytics tools. Analyzing learning is not prohibited. What is not allowed, however, is to turn that analysis into opaque labeling, commercial exploitation, or the creation of behavioral profiles for purposes unrelated to education.

In addition, the law requires:

• Maximum protection by default (privacy by default);
• Data minimization;
• Transparency in the settings;
• Prohibition on the use of data for incompatible purposes.

This means that student accounts cannot be created with their data exposed, with expanded data collection, or with active behavioral recommendations enabled by default.

3. Risk Prevention and Digital Environment Integrity

The law requires reasonable measures to prevent and mitigate risks related to:

• Sexual exploitation and abuse;
• Physical violence, bullying, and harassment;
• Encouraging self-harm, suicide, or harmful practices;
• Promotion of drugs, gambling, and prohibited products;
• Predatory advertising;
• Pornographic content.

This has a direct impact on school digital environments that involve interaction among users.

Forums, chat rooms, groups, and collaborative platforms are no longer just informal spaces. Schools need to establish clear protocols for:

• Moderation;
• Complaint;
• Content removal;
• Incident report;
• Communication with guardians.

Not as a one-time response, but as a permanent preventive framework.

4. Age, supervision, and platform design

The law establishes mechanisms for verifying age, prohibits self-declaration in high-risk situations, and requires platforms to provide effective parental supervision tools.

It also requires that the default settings use the highest level of protection available, including:

• Restriction on communication with unauthorized users;
• Limiting resources that encourage compulsive use;
• Control over personalized recommendations;
• Geolocation restriction;
• Clear display of usage time.

For the school, this solidifies a structural triangle: platform – institution – family.

Parental supervision is no longer just a technical detail; it has become an institutional component of the student's digital experience.

5. Games, gamification, and commercial exploitation

The law prohibits loot boxes in games intended for, or likely to be accessed by, children and adolescents.

This ban is more than just a market detail: it signals that educational environments must not replicate the logic of gambling, paid randomness, or hidden rewards.

Educational gamification must be aligned with the following criteria:

• Transparency;
• Predictability;
• No financial exploitation;
• Protection against manipulative design.

Schools need to distinguish between pedagogical motivation and predatory behavioral engineering.

See also:

• Cyberdeck and AI Gadgets: From Hacker Culture to the Transformation of Education
• The Accompanying Voice: Assisted Consciousness, Agents, and the Role of the Teacher in the Age of Artificial Intelligence
• Esports Scholarships in the U.S.: Facts, Dilemmas, and What Matters to Brazilian Schools

6. Social Media, Communication with Parents or Guardians, and Limiting Exposure

The law requires that accounts held by children and adolescents up to age 16 be linked to a legal guardian and prohibits the creation of behavioral profiles for commercial purposes.

Educational projects that use social media, content creation, or the public sharing of images require formal procedures, structured consent, and control over settings.

Informality—“let’s post it on the group’s profile”—is no longer neutral.

7. Transparency, Governance, and Sanctions

The law imposes obligations regarding transparency, moderation reports, and accountability, and provides for significant administrative sanctions, including substantial fines and other measures in the event of noncompliance.

This elevates digital security to a strategic level within school administration.

Starting in 2026, technology governance cannot be treated as a mere administrative add-on. It must be integrated with digital literacy and multiliteracies, since understanding language, data, algorithms, and technological mediations is essential for effectively governing the connected school environment.

Technology cannot be a lawless frontier, guided solely by enthusiasm for innovation or operational convenience. It must operate under clear standards, with transparent criteria and a critical framework capable of supporting responsible institutional decisions.

The role of schools, therefore, is not merely to comply with the law. It is to educate students who are capable of understanding the digital languages that surround them and, at the same time, to establish a regulated ecosystem where innovation and protection are guided by the same educational principle.

About the author:

Share on social media: