Child Safety in the Smart Home: Parents' Perceptions, Needs, and Mitigation Strategies

Abstract

Concerns about child physical and digital safety are emerging with families' adoption of smart home technologies such as robot vacuums and smart speakers. To better understand parents' definitions and perceptions of child safety regarding smart home technologies, we interviewed 23 parents who are smart home adopters. We contribute insights into parents' perceptions of the physical and digital safety risks smart home technologies pose to children, and how such perceptions formed and changed across three phases. In acquiring smart home devices, parents already considered whether the device could cause physical harm to their children or pose privacy and security risks. Once children become active users of smart home technologies, parents however reported encountering unanticipated physical safety risks and digital safety issues (e.g., exposure to unsuitable content) that required their mitigation strategies. As their children grow up, parents further expressed the need to shift attention from physical safety to digital safety. Parents' safety perceptions influence how they involve children in smart home interactions and implement mitigation strategies, such as restricting access to certain devices and using parental controls. We identify six factors that shape parents' perception and evaluation of smart home safety risks to children, including parenting style, parents' tech-savviness, parents' trust in tech companies, children's age and developmental differences, news media, and device characteristics. We provide design and policy recommendations to better protect children's safety in the smart home environment. CCS Concepts: • Security and privacy → Social aspects of security and privacy; Usability in security and privacy; • Human-centered computing → Ubiquitous and mobile devices; • Social and professional topics → Children.

A Survey of User Perspectives on Security and Privacy in a Home Networking Environment

“…In contrast, Prasad et al [149] (interview, 𝑛 = 20) considered parental privacy concerns towards service providers and manufacturers and how they affect their children. Sun et al [171] (interview, 𝑛 = 23) identified six factors which, according to them, influence parents' perception of privacy risks, including parenting style, tech-savviness, trust in manufacturer, age of the children, features of the used devices and news media reporting.…”

Smart home cybersecurity awareness and behavioral incentives

“…The study indicates a considerable lack of awareness among parents regarding cybersecurity threats that children face online. Sun et al (2021) conduct a study by interviewing 23 parents who live in smart homes across Canada and the USA via Zoom video calls. They show that parents’ perceptions and mitigation strategies regarding their children’s safety in smart homes encompassed physical and digital aspects.…”

The lights are on, but no one’s home: A performance test to measure digital skills to use IoT home automation

“…These differences influence their ways of using smart home devices, which could cause power imbalances between household members (Geeng et al, 2019;Van der Zeeuw et al, 2020;Zeng et al, 2017). To study these dynamics between household members, it could furthermore be of interest to study the digital skills of children and adolescents as they often are not considered enough as individuals with unique skills and needs (Sun et al, 2021).…”