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"Hey Google is it OK if I eat you?": Initial Explorations in Child-Agent Interaction

Authors:

Stefania Druga,

Randi Williams,

Cynthia Breazeal,

Mitchel ResnickAuthors Info & Claims

IDC '17: Proceedings of the 2017 Conference on Interaction Design and Children

Pages 595 - 600

https://doi.org/10.1145/3078072.3084330

Published: 27 June 2017 Publication History

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Abstract

Autonomous technology is becoming more prevalent in our daily lives. We investigated how children perceive this technology by studying how 26 participants (3-10 years old) interact with Amazon Alexa, Google Home, Cozmo, and Julie Chatbot. We refer to them as "agents" in the context of this paper. After playing with the agents, children answered questions about trust, intelligence, social entity, personality, and engagement. We identify four themes in child-agent interaction: perceived intelligence, identity attribution, playfulness and understanding. Our findings show how different modalities of interaction may change the way children perceive their intelligence in comparison to the agents'. We also propose a series of design considerations for future child-agent interaction around voice and prosody, interactive engagement and facilitating understanding.

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Cited By

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Seaborn KRogers KAltmeyer MWatanabe MSawa YNam SItagaki TLi G(2025)Unboxing Manipulation Checks for Voice UXInteracting with Computers10.1093/iwc/iwae062Online publication date: 7-Jan-2025
https://doi.org/10.1093/iwc/iwae062
Yücel YRızvanoğlu K(2025)Breaking down barriersInternational Journal of Human-Computer Studies10.1016/j.ijhcs.2024.103403194:COnline publication date: 1-Feb-2025
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1016/j.ijhcs.2024.103403
Levinson LCharisi VZotos CGomez RŠabanović S(2025)Let us make robots “Think in child!”: How children conceptualize fairness, inclusion, and privacy with social robotsInternational Journal of Child-Computer Interaction10.1016/j.ijcci.2024.10070643(100706)Online publication date: Mar-2025
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijcci.2024.100706
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Index Terms

"Hey Google is it OK if I eat you?": Initial Explorations in Child-Agent Interaction
1. Human-centered computing
  1. Human computer interaction (HCI)

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Published In

IDC '17: Proceedings of the 2017 Conference on Interaction Design and Children

June 2017

808 pages

ISBN:9781450349215

DOI:10.1145/3078072

General Chairs:
Paulo Blikstein
Stanford University, USA
,
Dor Abrahamson
University of California-Berkeley, USA

Permission to make digital or hard copies of part or all of this work for personal or classroom use is granted without fee provided that copies are not made or distributed for profit or commercial advantage and that copies bear this notice and the full citation on the first page. Copyrights for third-party components of this work must be honored. For all other uses, contact the Owner/Author.

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Association for Computing Machinery

New York, NY, United States

Publication History

Published: 27 June 2017

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IDC '17

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SIGCHI

IDC '17: Interaction Design and Children

June 27 - 30, 2017

California, Stanford, USA

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IDC '17 Paper Acceptance Rate 25 of 118 submissions, 21%;

Overall Acceptance Rate 172 of 578 submissions, 30%

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IDC '25

Sponsor:
sigchi

Interaction Design and Children

June 23 - 26, 2025

Reykjavik , Iceland

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Cited By

View all

Seaborn KRogers KAltmeyer MWatanabe MSawa YNam SItagaki TLi G(2025)Unboxing Manipulation Checks for Voice UXInteracting with Computers10.1093/iwc/iwae062Online publication date: 7-Jan-2025
https://doi.org/10.1093/iwc/iwae062
Yücel YRızvanoğlu K(2025)Breaking down barriersInternational Journal of Human-Computer Studies10.1016/j.ijhcs.2024.103403194:COnline publication date: 1-Feb-2025
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1016/j.ijhcs.2024.103403
Levinson LCharisi VZotos CGomez RŠabanović S(2025)Let us make robots “Think in child!”: How children conceptualize fairness, inclusion, and privacy with social robotsInternational Journal of Child-Computer Interaction10.1016/j.ijcci.2024.10070643(100706)Online publication date: Mar-2025
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijcci.2024.100706
Vicars MArantes J(2024)AI Against 'I' Hiraeth Poiesis or MimesisUnderstanding Generative AI in a Cultural Context10.4018/979-8-3693-7235-7.ch017(425-446)Online publication date: 27-Dec-2024
https://doi.org/10.4018/979-8-3693-7235-7.ch017
Baid SBasibuyuk PAryono S(2024)Collaborative Caregiving in Multi-Generational FamiliesPerspectives on Social and Material Fractures in Care10.4018/979-8-3693-0015-2.ch006(154-183)Online publication date: 1-Mar-2024
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Scheppach L(2024)Towards an Instrument to Assess K-12 Students' Conceptions of Machine Learning Using Concept CartoonsProceedings of the 24th Koli Calling International Conference on Computing Education Research10.1145/3699538.3699574(1-2)Online publication date: 12-Nov-2024
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Sun YChen JYao BLiu JWang DMa XLu YXu YHe L(2024)Exploring Parent's Needs for Children-Centered AI to Support Preschoolers' Interactive Storytelling and Reading ActivitiesProceedings of the ACM on Human-Computer Interaction10.1145/36870358:CSCW2(1-25)Online publication date: 8-Nov-2024
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Sharma SHowell NVentä-Olkkonen LIivari NEden GHartikainen HKinnula MDurall ENitsche MOkkonen JPait SRubegni ESluis-Thiescheffer Wvan der Velden LVaranasi U(2024)Promoting Criticality with Design Futuring with Young ChildrenProceedings of the 13th Nordic Conference on Human-Computer Interaction10.1145/3679318.3685335(1-15)Online publication date: 13-Oct-2024
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Arn LHuang E(2024)“Robots Can Do Disgusting Things, but Also Good Things”: Fostering Children’s Understanding of AI through StorytellingACM Transactions on Computing Education10.1145/367761324:3(1-55)Online publication date: 27-Sep-2024
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Sun KLi JZou YRadesky JBrooks CSchaub F(2024)Unfulfilled Promises of Child Safety and Privacy: Portrayals and Use of Children in Smart Home MarketingProceedings of the ACM on Human-Computer Interaction10.1145/36374228:CSCW1(1-29)Online publication date: 26-Apr-2024
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Recommendations

How smart are the smart toys?: children and parents' agent interaction and intelligence attribution

Hey Google, Do Unicorns Exist?: Conversational Agents as a Path to Answers to Children's Questions

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