Have you ever found yourself compelled to check your social media notifications? Or sent a random photo just to keep your Snapchat “streak going”? Or found yourself autoplaying yet another cute cat video on YouTube and just staring at it?
If so, you’re far from alone – and if we as adults can’t resist such digital temptations, how can we expect any better from our children?
Many digital environments are not designed with the user’s best interests in mind, and this is especially true of the games, apps, and platforms often used by children and teens.
Designers use persuasive design techniques to entice users to spend more time on their apps and platforms, and earn more revenue through ad sales. Below we discuss some of the most common design tricks used in popular games, social media, and apps.
Easier decision making
Social media and streaming platforms aim to provide a “seamless” user experience, making it easy to stay engaged without the need for constant clicking and minimizing obvious opportunities for disengagement.
These seamless experiences include things like autoplay when streaming video and the “infinite scroll” of social media. When an algorithm keeps showing us content we’ve liked and engaged with in the past, it takes extra effort to stop watching. Naturally, we often choose to stay put.
Reward and dopamine release
Another way to keep kids engaged is to use rewards like stars, diamonds, stickers, badges and other “points” in kid’s apps, as well as “likes” on social media.
Rewards stimulate the release of dopamine, a brain chemical that not only makes you feel good, but also makes you want more.
Rewards can be used to encourage good behavior, but this is not always possible: some kid’s apps double rewards if users watch ads.
Loot boxes and “gambling”
Variable rewards have proven to be particularly effective: players are more likely to stick around if they don’t know when they’ll get a particular reward or desired item.
In games, various rewards are often found (or purchased) in the form of “loot boxes” – chests, treasures, or stacks of cards that contain random rewards. Because the rewards are unpredictable, some researchers have described loot boxes as similar to gambling, even though the games don’t necessarily involve the use of real money.
In-game currency (fake game money) may be purchased with real money and used to “gamble” for rare characters and special items – this is very appealing to young people.
In one of our studies (not yet published), a 12-year-old student admitted to spending hundreds of dollars to get his desired character in the popular game Genshin Impact.
The charm of stripes
Another problematic way to use rewards in design is negative reinforcement: when there is a risk of a bad outcome (such as losing something good), we feel compelled to continue a certain behavior.
Here’s how “streaks” work: You don’t get the promised extra reward unless you do the same task several days in a row. Language learning app DuoLingo uses streaks, as does popular social media app Snapchat, and studies have found a correlation between Snapchat streaks and problematic smartphone use among teenagers.
Streaks can also generate revenue directly for your app, and if you lose your streak after a day of play, you can often pay to get it back.
Damage to reputation
Reputation matters on social media: think about the number of friends you have on Facebook or the number of likes you get on your posts.
Designers can sometimes play on the fear of losing reputation, for example by adding a leaderboard that ranks users based on their scores.
You may have heard of leaderboards being used in games, but they are also commonly used in popular education apps like Kahoot! and Education Perfect. Leaderboards introduce an element of competition that many students enjoy.
But for some, especially those at the bottom, this competition has negative consequences.
Similarly, Snapchat has SnapScore, where reputation damage still has an impact — you don’t want a lower score than your friends, which makes you more likely to stick with the app.
Use the feeling of connection
Another of designers’ tricks is to leverage the emotional connections and associations that users make with social media influencers, celebrities, or even their favorite media characters for young children (such as Elmo or Peppa Pig).
While these connections foster a sense of belonging, they can also be exploited for commercial gain, with influencers promoting commercial products or characters encouraging in-app purchases.
What can parents do?
Persuasive design isn’t inherently bad — users want their apps and games to be compelling, just like movies and TV shows — but some design “tricks” are purely for commercial gain, often at the expense of user happiness.
But it’s not all doom and gloom: here are some steps parents can take to keep their kids on board with the app:
Have early and ongoing discussions with children about the commercial implications of what they are involved with.
Model good digital choices, such as not succumbing to persuasive design and avoiding digital distractions.
Use trusted resources like Common Sense Media and Dark Pattern Games to help you with your digital decisions.
At present, the responsibility for managing children’s interactions with the digital sphere rests primarily with individuals and families.
“Some governments are starting to take action, but measures like blanket age-based bans on social media and other platforms only provide temporary protection for children. A better approach for governments and regulators is to focus on safety by design — the idea that user safety and rights should be the starting point of any app, product or service, not an afterthought.”
Chris Sommer is an Associate Research Fellow at the Digital Child Centre, Deakin University. Sumudu Marawarachchi is a researcher at the ARC Digital Child Centre, University of Wollongong. This article was originally published on The Conversation.
