George Valença is an associate professor II in the Department of Computing at the Federal Rural University of Pernambuco (UFRPE). He holds a bachelor’s, master’s, and doctoral degree from UFPE’s Center for Informatics, with part of his undergraduate studies completed at the Université de Technologie de Compiègne (France), researching process variability (master’s) and, in the context of open innovation, power and dependency relationships in software ecosystems (PhD). Since 2020, he has served as a chief scientist in R&D partnerships, collaborating with Instituto Alana on ethical design in education and with the Court of Auditors of Pernambuco on artificial intelligence. At UFRPE, he leads the ASPAS Lab, which investigates sociotechnical challenges of digital platforms, with particular attention to the relationship between children and trans people and technology. He teaches courses on business, futurism, and sociotechnical aspects of IT. He completed a postdoctoral fellowship at PUC-SP, investigating manipulative design patterns and the protection of children’s rights by design.