Safety vs. Surveillance

TLDR

Mobile safety apps for children are largely underused and depend mainly on parental controls that monitor and restrict their mobile activities. The study asks how children perceive these parental control apps. Researchers performed a qualitative review of 736 user reviews from 37 Google Play safety apps written by children aged 8‑19. Children gave the apps far lower ratings than parents—76 % awarded a single star—and reported that the apps were overly restrictive and invasive, damaging parent‑child relationships and underscoring the need for better design.

Abstract

Mobile applications ("apps") developed to promote online safety for children are underutilized and rely heavily on parental control features that monitor and restrict their child's mobile activities. This asymmetry in parental surveillance initiates an interesting research question -- how do children themselves feel about such parental control apps? We conducted a qualitative analysis of 736 reviews of 37 mobile online safety apps from Google Play that were publicly posted and written by children (ages 8-19). Our results indicate that child ratings were significantly lower than that of parents with 76% of the child reviews giving apps a single star. Children felt that the apps were overly restrictive and invasive of their personal privacy, negatively impacting their relationships with their parents. We relate these findings with HCI literature on mobile online safety, including broader literature around privacy and surveillance, and outline design opportunities for online safety apps.