Ah, that’s the great puzzle: On the Quest of a Holistic Understanding of the Harms of Recommender Systems on Children
Robin Ungruh, Maria Soledad Pera. 2024. “How Readability Cues Affect Children’s Navigation of Search Engine Result Pages”. In Designing for Children’s Digital Well- being: A Research, Policy and Practice Agenda (DCDW ’24), co-located with ACM IDC 2024. DOI:10.48550/arXiv.2405.02050
Abstract
Children come across various media items online, many of which are selected by recommender systems (RS) primarily designed for adults. The specific nature of the content selected by RS to display on online platforms used by children - although not necessarily targeting them as a user base - remains largely unknown. This raises questions about whether such content is appropriate given children’s vulnerable stages of development and the potential risks to their well-being. In this position paper, we reflect on the relationship between RS and children, emphasizing the possible adverse effects of the content this user group might be exposed to online. As a step towards fostering safer interactions for children in online environments, we advocate for researchers, practitioners, and policymakers to undertake a more comprehensive examination of the impact of RS on children - one focused on harms. This would result in a more holistic understanding that could inform the design and deployment of strategies that would better suit children’s needs and preferences while actively mitigating the potential harm posed by RS; acknowledging that identifying and addressing these harms is complex and multifaceted.