Digital Child Annual Report 2025 highlights growing focus on children’s digital lives

The ARC Centre of Excellence for the Digital Child has released its 2025 Annual Report, offering a detailed snapshot of how Australian children are growing, learning and connecting in an increasingly digital world.

The report highlights a year of significant research growth, national partnerships, policy influence and strengthened work in Indigenous-led research, while also signalling a strategic shift toward greater translation and sector impact. 

At its core, the report positions the Centre as a leading national voice on children’s digital wellbeing, rights, learning and safety, producing evidence designed to inform educators, families, policymakers and technology decision-makers.

The Centre’s research agenda expanded significantly in 2025, with a 64 per cent increase in academic outputs and several major publications exploring the opportunities and risks shaping children’s digital lives. 

Key areas of focus included children’s exposure to and use of social media, generative artificial intelligence, platform-based risks such as Roblox, and the ongoing Australian Children of the Digital Age longitudinal study.

For the early childhood education and care (ECEC) sector, the report is particularly relevant as services continue to navigate questions around digital play, documentation, online safety, family communication, artificial intelligence and children’s digital rights.

The report highlights several projects with direct relevance to education settings, including work on digital parenting, deceptive design, educator guidance linked to the Early Years Learning Framework V2.0, and resources to improve the quality of online advice about children and technology. 

This work reflects a broader shift away from narrow “screen time” debates and toward more nuanced conversations about intentional digital learning, child safety, equity, privacy and digital literacy.

The Centre’s partnerships also expanded in 2025, including collaborations with organisations such as UNICEF Australia, ACECQA, ABC Education, Netsafe New Zealand, the Alannah & Madeline Foundation and ACMI. 

A significant feature of the report is the Centre’s continued commitment to Indigenous-led and Indigenous-informed research.

This included a new cultural capability framework, projects focused on language revitalisation and digital inclusion, and work designed to ensure Indigenous knowledge, priorities and sovereignty are embedded across the Centre’s research programs. 

The Centre also reported strong public engagement, with more than 62,000 followers across communication channels and almost 600,000 impressions across social media, email and web platforms. 

Its translation work included factsheets, checklists, digital literacy tools, public reports and events designed to make research more accessible to families, educators and communities.

For ECEC providers, teachers and educators, the report signals that digital capability is becoming an increasingly important part of quality practice.

Digital literacy, AI literacy, online safety, children’s rights, ethical documentation and family guidance are no longer peripheral issues. They are becoming part of the everyday governance, curriculum and safeguarding responsibilities of early learning services.

As digital tools continue to shape children’s experiences, the Centre’s work provides an important evidence base for services seeking to balance innovation with child-centred, rights-based and developmentally appropriate practice.

Read the full report here.