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Childhood Redrawn: New analysis reveals “pick and mix” of harmful design across social media, AI and gaming
New child online safety analysis indicates the most common design features deployed by tech firms to keep children engaged, spending and coming back. It reveals that potentially manipulative design is widespread across all digital services used by kids, not just social media.
The study examined nine popular services – three social media platforms, three AI-powered applications and three free-to-play games – using child avatars to explore how the services are experienced by children. Using both iOS and Android devices, 5Rights assessed each service to identify if they used exploitative design features and in what context.
As governments across Europe fumble with blunt restrictions on children’s access to social media, the findings suggest that merely restricting access to social media will not address the wider design practices children encounter online. A recent study found that 55% of 8–12-year-olds and 76% of 12–15-year-olds now use AI tools, while more than half (56%) say gaming is what they do most when online.
The study found risky features were commonplace across all three categories with the most common engagement tactic being attention-grabbing notifications – alerts encouraging users to return by promising new content or rewards. Notifications were deployed by all but one of the services assessed many of which deployed emotional manipulation tactics – like adopting the role of a friend who says they “miss” the user, guilting them into engaging.
Personalised content and recommendations, which tailor what users see based on their behaviour, were each present in six services. The same number used autoplay, deliberately feeding children continuous content without the child taking an active choice.
Other common tactics included infinite scroll, anticipation mechanisms, gamification, disappearing content and emotional affirmations. Alongside these manipulative features, the analysis also identified a range of deceptive practices, including hidden information, pre-selected choices, hidden costs, targeted pressure to purchase and virtual currencies. The platform most clearly designed to be used by children – Barbie Horse Ride & Rescue – used timers, notifications and daily rewards to encourage users to build problematic habits.
In isolation, these features may not cause harm, but their common and combined use can cause harm by influencing children’s behaviour, encouraging addictive use and promoting spending.
The examination is part of the Childhood Redrawn campaign by 5Rights Foundation, which highlights the ways technology is deliberately reshaping children’s experiences and calls on policy makers to put the responsibility on tech companies to make the products safe for kids by ending these practices.
Leanda Barrington-Leach, Executive Director at 5Rights Foundation, said:
“Right now, tech operates a bit like a sweet shop for children: with an endless choice of attractive products, all competing for their attention. Taking social media out of the pick and mix will not make children’s digital diets much healthier.
“This analysis shows that the same potentially harmful ingredients can be found across many of the technologies children use. We can keep removing individual products, but equally attractive alternatives will quickly take their place. It’s time to stop focusing on what’s on the shelf and start setting basic health and safety requirements for the ingredients.”
Alex Cooney, CEO of Irish online safety charity CyberSafeKids said,
“We should be really concerned about these design features and the impact on children’s well-being and development. These are immensely powerful technologies, built to hold a child’s attention and keep them engaged.
“Our research confirms that children have considerable, mostly unrestricted access to these platforms and tools. This isn’t just about attention or spend — it’s about dependency and intimacy. Conversations with chatbots, for instance, can be both dangerous and misleading, as recent tragic cases in both the U.S. and the U.K. have shown. Technology companies must no longer be allowed to dictate the standards, terms, and rules of engagement.”
Noeline Blackwell, Online Safety Coordinator, Children’s Rights Alliance said,
“The Research from 5Rights Foundation and from our member organisation, CyberSafeKids highlights the need to be far more critical of some of the products and systems marketed by the best-known digital services and how they are accessed by children.
“These products are deliberately designed and deployed by some of the most powerful companies in the world to exploit children’s attention and emotions. It is to their shame that they are building their profits by disregarding the welfare and rights of children. It is also unlawful. Rather than requiring regulators to enforce the letter of the law before they change, they should immediately cease these risky practices.”
For more information about the 10 most common manipulative design features and about the methodology of this analysis, download the explainer.
