Responsible Innovation in Technology for Children

The report was based on three research initiatives:

255 children aged between eight and 12 in the US, Chile and South Africa played digital games on tablets over the course of an after-school programme that lasted for between six and 12 weeks.

240 in-home  visits were made to 50 children aged between six and 12 and their families in Australia, Cyprus, South Africa and the UK over a period of 14 months. This part of the research was based on conversations with and observations of the children and their families as they navigated everyday life and digital game spaces.

The heart rate, eye tracking, facial expression, and galvanic skin response of 69 children aged between seven and 13 in Australia were studied playing games, and their reactions were recorded on video. Children and researchers then worked together to analyze and interpret those results and recordings.

All children were from diverse backgrounds and different socio-economic strata.

How did we select the games for this research?

For the family case studies conducted in children’s homes, the games were those the children themselves were choosing to play. For the rest of the study, the games were selected for reasons that were pragmatic: for example, since the studies were conducted in different countries, they needed to support multiple languages, run on tablets and not demand high internet connectivity.

Ethics and safety were also a priority, and we only considered games that were appropriate for our participant’s age, and we excluded multi-player games. Other criteria were related to our main research question: Can digital games enhance child wellbeing? Since the study asked specifically whether casual games can do so, we investigated what kinds of experiences children have in casual games.