5Rights considers the impact of persuasive design, finds cost for children is too high

The 5Rights Foundation with the support of Schillings Law firm published Disrupted Childhood: the Cost of Persuasive Design that considers the impact of persuasive design and concludes that the price - for children - is too high.

Persuasive design strategies are the hooks and tricks that keep users online; auto-play, auto-suggestion, Likes, re-tweets, notifications, buzzes, pings, typing bubbles, Streaks… Each on their own offer a small symbol of personal worth or fuzzy reward, together they provide a constant, damaging ecosystem of distraction, competition and invasion that and with it an epidemic of anxiety, sleeplessness and negative impacts on health education family and social life.

Baroness Kidron speaks on Amanpour.

“I welcome this new edition to the growing literature about this issue, and applaud the great contribution 5Rights plans in articulating the rights and needs of children in the digital environment. It is everyone’s responsibility to ensure that this interaction is positive and healthy, rather than negative, destructive or dehumanising.”
The Children’s Commissioner for England, Anne Longfield