23M/ Considerations & Trends in Children's Data Governance & Age Appropriate Design
Considerations and Trends in Children’s Data Governance and Age Appropriate Design
Thursday 23M
Convener: Moira Patterson
Notes-taker(s): Moira Patterson
Tags for the session - technology discussed/ideas considered:
Children’s Data
Age Appropriate Design
Respectful Technology
Discussion notes, key understandings, outstanding questions, observations, and, if appropriate to this discussion: action items, next steps:
Thanks to the small but inspired team that joined the session.
The context for the discussion is the challenges around helping children and parents manage in an increasingly connected world, where the online/offline environment poses new challenges to children’s ability to develop on their own terms and in line with their developmental needs. While there are important benefits and opportunities, the discussion focused around risks and how to address them - especially ones around privacy, safety, security, and ultimately the mental and physical wellbeing of children. We see this in education to the gamification of the play and recreational space and through connected toys or social networking services, there is an increasing merging of online and offline spheres.
We discussed personal strategies that people use to support their children, and what changes in the landscape could help address challenges. Even where parents are knowledgeable, the environment (peer pressure, network effects) is stacked against the judicious and measured use of tech, and there is a strong desire by kids to use technology applications, and sometimes ones that their parents do not agree with.
Resources:
IEEE has various activities in this space, including:
P2089 - Standard for Age Appropriate Digital Services Framework
P7004.1 - Recommended Practices for Virtual Classroom Security, Privacy and Data Governance
Other ideas that were suggested:
-Check the Me2B white papers, as there are detailed analyses of children’s and education apps
-Certification models that can help build consumer trust in products following good practices
-In VR environments, ensure that risks are known to users (incl. parents who may buy them for kids), and that the onboarding experience includes components that communicate benefits and risks and also VR literacy
-To raise awareness and understanding of these important issues, we need good analogies that connect with people -- “A story is data with a soul”
We discussed this in the context of increasing awareness of the issues, including legislative and regulatory developments, as well as increasing media coverage, and technology standards, best practices and other approaches are critical to furthering positive outcomes in this space.
