Proceedings of the Annual Meeting of the Cognitive Science Society

As technology becomes ever more deeply embedded in daily life, how do families make decisions about responsible technology use? Here we examined how parents and children use social norms and explanations when deciding about technology use rules. In Study 1, we asked parents of 3- to 11-year-old children how they set and explain technology use rules for their children. In Study 2, we recorded asynchronous conversations between parents and 6- to 10-year-olds about technology rules. Across studies, parents and children used social comparisons to peers to set and justify rules. Parents' explanations scaffolded children's reasoning, but they rarely referred to structural factors like deceptive technology design that make rules necessary to keep kids safe. By gaining a more nuanced description of how families navigate decisions about children's technology use, we hope to inform strategies to help parents and children negotiate responsible home technology use to improve family harmony and flourishing.