A graphic designer based in the Philippines experienced low earnings on a freelancing platform due to the platform's flat 20% commission fee and client demands for unlimited revisions. For a $50 logo design, the designer netted only $40 and was forced to perform extensive revisions, resulting in compensation below the minimum wage.

Workers seeking help for held payouts received only automated replies.

During a class at a high school in the United States in February 2022, an employee plugged a personal computer into the classroom projector and a series of explicit images from what appeared to be an online image search were displayed, according to the superintendent. The employee was placed on leave, police were contacted, and counselling and guidance services were offered to affected students. The district said it was reviewing its policies on employees' personal devices in classrooms.

In March 2015, a head teacher at a high school in the Apulia region of Italy found that a female teacher was keeping a paper register because the school had not provided teachers with electronic devices, and suspended her for one day. The teacher appealed with a lawyer from a teachers' union. On 16 February 2018, a local labor court annulled the sanction, finding no proof that the teacher had a device to fill in the register, and noted that teachers received tablets only after the disciplinary charge.

An adult female applicant paid IAS coaching fees after seeing an online advertisement, but received no coaching and no refund. A consumer commission ordered repayment and compensation.

Students across a school district in Illinois, United States were found to have accessed pornography on school-issued tablets, indicating a filter or policy failure affecting more than one student. The report describes district-level awareness of the issue and a response focused on reviewing device security settings. Specific student ages and the scale of the exposure are not detailed in available coverage. The case adds to a broader pattern of similar filter failures reported across multiple US districts.

Some Indian state education ministries set quotas for government teachers to get a minimum number of students to download Diksha, the national education app; a Times of India report cited by HRW says Uttar Pradesh told each government teacher to convince 10 students to download it. HRW concluded that in these countries, children could not give valid, meaningful consent to the processing of their data by government-mandated platforms, because they could not refuse to use them freely without detrimental effect and had no alternative means to access their education.

The Indian Education Ministry's Diksha app, the government's main means of delivering online education during the pandemic and downloaded by over 10 million students and teachers, was found by HRW to collect children's precise location, including current and last known location. The app gave Google access to location data through two embedded SDKs and was observed sending children's advertising IDs to Google. Its privacy policy does not disclose the location collection and describes only approximate, IP-based location. Some state education ministries set quotas for government teachers to get a minimum number of students to download it. HRW said children and their parents were denied the chance to decide whether to allow the government to track their location and share it with third-party companies.

A parent in Indiana, United States discovered that her 7-year-old daughter had recorded videos of herself after being exposed to pornographic images and videos found via a YouTube search on her school-issued iPad, which the child said she watched during recess in the classroom or gym. The parent, herself a teacher in a neighboring district, demonstrated that the same search produced drastically different, safe results on her own district's more securely configured Chromebook, and on a second district-issued iPad tested by investigative reporters. The school district did not answer specific questions about the incident but confirmed general information about its technology program. The parent withdrew her children from the district and went public to warn other parents.

In March 2020, intruders entered a teacher's online English lesson at a middle school in Italy and sent pupils obscene and violent images; the students disconnected, visibly upset. Class representatives reported it to the head teacher and the postal police, and a class representative criticised access by a simple link with no authentication. Parents asked the head to inform all families of the security standards the school had adopted for distance learning, and the source says the Ministry and the regional school office were looking into the case. Families first raised it. Responses acted on the school and the persons responsible (police complaint, still an allegation). Whether access settings were changed is not stated in source.

A teacher in Marivan told HRW that students had been told that if they were not in the Shad app, their scores would not be approved or sent to the school. Shad was built by the Education Ministry and reported more than 18 million active users in October 2021. HRW concluded that in Iran, Turkey and India, children could not give valid, meaningful consent to the processing of their data by government-mandated platforms, because they could not refuse to use them freely without detrimental effect and had no alternative means to access their education.

Multiple anonymous posts on a Japanese Q&A forum show students discussing access to pornographic content on school-issued iPads, including one post explicitly describing watching pornographic videos on a school iPad via home WiFi, and others asking whether such access would be detected by school filtering or monitoring systems. These are first-person, self-reported accounts.

A group of K-12 students and their parents filed a federal class-action lawsuit against Google LLC, alleging that the company's educational products, including Chromebooks, ChromeOS, and the Chrome browser, unlawfully generated, collected, used, and shared their personal data without consent [1.1]. The plaintiffs alleged that this unauthorized collection and sharing of their data resulted in severe privacy invasions, violating wiretap, computer access, and consumer protection laws while they used the devices for school.

A female Kenyan data worker had her online earnings frozen and her account permanently closed after her employer and a digital payment provider blocked transactions. As a consequence, she saw her savings for her newborn baby taken away.

Data workers reported being unable to access PayPal balances and receiving no explanation for holds.

An adult male Kenyan data worker had his online earnings frozen and his account permanently closed after a payment service provider and his employer blocked transactions. As a result, he was unable to afford his rent, was forced to seek shelter with a friend, and had to depend on others to survive.

A school-aged girl in California filed a lawsuit against Google LLC. Using her school-issued Chromebook, she created a Discord account and was targeted and sexually victimized by an anonymous user for weeks until her father discovered the abuse.

A group of K-12 students and their parents filed a lawsuit against educational technology company IXL Learning, alleging that the platform generated, collected, used, and shared students' personal and tracking information without consent. The software tracked student activity during school-required use, resulting in an invasion of privacy and unauthorized exposure of personal data. A federal judge denied the company's motion to force the dispute into private arbitration, ruling that schools cannot bind families to such terms.

A school-aged student in Utah, United States, developed a debilitating pornography addiction through cumulative exposure to harmful content on a school-issued Chromebook. The student's family filed a lawsuit against Google LLC, alleging that the device's design failed to block, and instead promoted, pornography to serve Google's data-monetization business model.

A former A-Level student in Zimbabwe was charged after allegedly selling and digitally distributing a stolen national Economics examination paper ahead of the exam. Prosecutors alleged that the paper had been removed from a printing facility by a examinations council employee and then photographed and shared through WhatsApp in exchange for payment. The leaked paper reportedly spread widely among students before the examination, prompting arrests and legal proceedings.

An educator reported students receiving inaccurate or culturally inappropriate information from AI systems during educational activities. The consequence described was misleading educational content. This is a personal interview. Source available to SHIELD.

A parent had loan deductions continue after cancellation linked to a learning app. A consumer forum ordered a refund and compensation.

A contractor of several years says they have not been paid 250 dollars for a project completed in May 2024, and that unpaid funds remain in past invoices as well. They say they emailed from the summer and filed tickets on 16 September, 15 October and 8 November without a useful response. The platform replied on 30 December that it had escalated the matter and that a response might not come until after the holidays, and in January the complainant said later emails still went unanswered; BBB lists the complaint as Unresolved.

An adult male freelance worker of over five years says his withdrawal of earnings from a freelance marketplace has been frozen for a month after he tried to link a bank account. He says support wrongly marked his active bank account as closed and the case has sat with a higher department for 30 days. He describes the money as his livelihood.

A parent in North West England reported that a secondary school introduced a mandatory iPad scheme requiring Year 7 students to purchase a £600 device or enter a three-year payment plan. The school stated that the device was required to access the curriculum and initially told the family that there were no alternatives. The parent, concerned about affordability in a low-income community, questioned whether requiring families to fund an expensive school-managed device was appropriate or lawful.

A pornographic video was played on a classroom LED screen at a public school in Madhya Pradesh, India, with approximately 13 minor students present and no teacher in the room; one student recorded the incident, which went viral on social media. Local education officials formed a three-member fact-finding committee, including two school principals, to investigate how the video came to be played and identify those responsible. The school principal reportedly claimed the incident was connected to an attempted blackmail scheme against him, though this claim has not been independently verified. This is a school-technology governance failure distinct from individual-device cases, since it involves shared classroom infrastructure rather than a personal or take-home device.

A male student in Pennsylvania developed a screen addiction that severely strained his relationship with his father. Despite his father's attempts to limit screen time by removing personal devices, the student bypassed these restrictions by watching online video content on his school-issued laptop.

Between January and May 2024, a man used a voice-changing app to impersonate a female teacher and contact girls from Scheduled Tribe communities by phone. Posing as a teacher responsible for educational scholarships, he instructed the girls to meet him in secluded locations to discuss scholarship matters. Police allege that he sexually assaulted at least seven girls, many of them minors, using the same deception. Authorities arrested the suspect and registered cases under the POCSO Act and other criminal provisions. The case was uncovered after one victim reported the abuse to police.

A school district in California, USA, confirmed that a middle school student accessed the projectors in three classrooms to display racist images and an inappropriate video. Parents reported similar incidents in recent months, including one where a student allegedly streamed pornographic content. Parents noted that students were able to cast content from their mobile devices to classroom screens over the school's Wi-Fi network.

Middle-school students in Italy obtained the register passwords of at least four teachers and made at least 40 unauthorized accesses, turning failing grades into top marks and giving high-achieving classmates very low grades. A teacher noticed an anomalous low grade recorded for a usually strong student, which triggered an internal investigation. At publication, the school had taken no measures and filed no complaint, deferring decisions to class councils in April. Action against the students involved remains pending, and it is unstated whether register access controls were changed.

Students reported through repeated surveys on a student portal that homework kept arriving via the electronic register, email or chat after school hours: 62% said it happens often, 14% said it is the norm, and 54% received homework digitally after lessons ended in June. On 28 September 2026, the Ministry of Education sent schools a note, in force for 2026/2027, requiring homework to be set in class before lessons end and ruling out register entries in the late afternoon, evening or at weekends that force students and families to keep checking for updates. It also asks heads to plan tests collegially and to favour students' disconnection from digital devices. The response acts on all schools and on how teachers use the tool. Whether register software settings were changed is not stated in source.

In April 2022, a ten-year-old student was coerced into a sexual act by classmates during a school trip, which was filmed and widely circulated on social media. The school responded by suspending the minor and allegedly threatening her to prevent her from speaking out.

A minor developed a severe video game addiction after prolonged exposure to online video games designed with psychological engagement loops and reward systems. As a result, the child experienced physical injuries, severe emotional distress, academic decline leading to school absence, and extreme withdrawal symptoms including physical outbursts and rage. The child's parents filed a civil complaint against several video game developers and publishers, alleging that they intentionally designed their platforms to hook young users.

Two college students were arrested after allegedly morphing and circulating obscene images and videos of teachers and female students. During the investigation, police reportedly found child sexual abuse material on the devices of the accused, resulting in charges under the POCSO Act. Investigators alleged that the students participated in a paid Telegram group where such content was shared for profit. One of the accused allegedly collected photographs and videos of teachers and students and used them to create and distribute obscene manipulated content through Telegram and Instagram.

The National Commission for Protection of Child Rights summoned the CEO of Byju's to appear on 23 December 2022 after media reports that the company's sales team allegedly lured parents into buying courses for their children through loan-based agreements, with some customers saying they were exploited and put their savings at risk. The NCPCR chair also publicly alleged the company bought phone numbers of children and parents and pressured families; Byju's denied buying databases. The source reports the summons and allegations, not findings.

Researchers found that harmful content could be accessed on school-issued iPads used by primary school pupils, raising concerns about the effectiveness of online safety controls on educational devices.

A Nigerian user had a client payment of $100 indefinitely frozen by a digital payment platform. As a consequence of the freeze, they were unable to recover or access the money.

In 2020, an adult male Nigerian tech entrepreneur had his account with a global payments platform abruptly closed. As a result of this sudden closure, he lost USD 15,000.

Between 2019 and 2021, a Nigerian user experienced severe restrictions on a digital payment platform. As a result of these restrictions, they reportedly lost thousands of dollars in frozen funds and transaction limitations.

A nine-year-old student in Istanbul and his mother told HRW that his teacher required him to use online learning platforms every day to be marked as attending school during Covid-19 closures. HRW's opening account of his school day describes tracking technologies on his school's online learning platform, including location tracking, advertising technology companies receiving information about his use of the virtual whiteboard, and a social media platform accessing his phone's contact list. The report says neither he nor his mother knew about this.

An 8-year-old male third-grade student in North Carolina, USA, was shown by older students on a school bus how to access an age-inappropriate video game on his school-issued device, which subsequently led his mother to discover he could also reach sexually explicit images and content. After a school technology administrator assured her this was impossible, the mother demonstrated the bypass directly to the school's vice principal and sent explicit findings to the principal, who responded only that continued device use was necessary to avoid the child falling behind academically. The mother's account, which aired in a local TV segment, states the district acknowledged its web filtering system exists but conceded it does not reliably work. This case is notable for documenting an explicit, demonstrated failure of institutional response even after a parent proved the vulnerability directly to school leadership.

A parent reported that children began showing pornography to each other in the classroom after physical books were replaced with iPads connected to the open internet. The school responded by offering trauma counseling. The reported consequence was exposure of students to pornographic material and resulting distress. This is a personal interview. Source available to SHIELD.

A parent reported that pornographic and violent video content appeared on their first grade boy's school-issued tablet, finding that the tablet had no restrictions or content filters.

A report describes pornographic content appearing on a school-issued tablet used by a child in Norway

The Norwegian Data Protection Authority (Datatilsynet) issued warnings of reprimand to three Norwegian municipalities for GDPR violations associated with their school-wide deployments of Google Chromebook and G Suite for Education. The regulator determined that the municipalities failed to perform adequate risk and privacy impact assessments, failed to establish a proper legal basis for data processing, and did not sufficiently inform students and parents about how their data would be processed and profiled.

Manipulated nude images of two students created with the Bikinioff app were circulated among schoolmates. Police seized phones and a juvenile inquiry was opened.

During an online class at a government school in India, in September 2025, a student allegedly played an obscene clip. The mother of a female student in the class complained to the school administration; she alleged no action followed and that her teenage daughter was harassed at school after she raised it, leading her to file a police complaint. The school's disciplinary committee was unable to identify who was responsible, and the cyber cell is investigating.

Parents of a 12-year-old reported in May 2026 that the child's online tutor exposed his bare lower body during a session, and police obtained a recording of it, according to the New Castle County Police Department. The tutor, a contractor with the platform since 2014, was charged with indecent exposure and sexual abuse of a child by a person of trust. The platform suspended him and gave police further recordings allegedly showing similar behaviour with other students.

A contributor on an AI training platform had their account suspended in November 2024 for alleged guideline violations, which they denied. Following the suspension, the platform refused to release $525 in earnings owed to the contributor for completed services and left their support inquiries unanswered.

A parent was quoted €640 with a 12‑month plan for a mandatory school device. Choosing the payment plan increased the total to €786.99 and extended payments to 36 months.