Peer-Reviewed Study

Prevalence and Characteristics of Manipulative Design in Mobile Applications Used by Children

Jun 2022 🇺🇸 JAMA Network Open Ages 3–5 PEER-REVIEWED

Radesky and colleagues built a coding system for "dark patterns" — manipulative design features long documented in gambling and adult-directed apps — and applied it to 480 apps that 160 children aged 3–5 actually used. They grouped manipulative features into four types: pressure to maintain a relationship with a character, time pressure, navigation constraints that make an app hard to exit, and visually attractive lures. Nearly half of the apps contained navigation constraints or attractive lures, and apps used by children from lower-education households scored significantly higher on manipulative design overall and specifically on features that encourage purchases. The study associates monetization-oriented app design with disproportionate exposure among children from lower-socioeconomic households, and frames the pattern as a design and marketplace issue rather than a fault of individual children or parents.

Navigation constraints/attractive lures in ~45% of apps

Manipulative navigation constraints and attractive visual lures each appeared in close to 45% of the 480 coded apps used by young children.

Higher manipulative-design scores in lower-education households

Apps used by children from lower-parental-education households scored significantly higher on overall manipulative design (3.7 vs 3.0; P=.02) and on purchase-pressure features specifically (1.0 vs 0.6; P=.02).

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CITATION

Radesky, Jenny, Alexis Hiniker, Caroline McLaren, Eliz Akgun, Alexandria Schaller, Heidi M. Weeks, Scott Campbell, and Ashley N. Gearhardt. "Prevalence and Characteristics of Manipulative Design in Mobile Applications Used by Children." JAMA Network Open 5, no. 6 (June 2022): e2217641. https://doi.org/10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2022.17641

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