From playful to manipulative: Exposing deceptive patterns in digital applications for young children

Deceptive design patterns—i.e., user interface tactics that serve to manipulate users into making decisions that benefit a company—are endemic to playful digital experiences. Children have been identified as particularly vulnerable to these tactics, owing to their ongoing cognitive development and nascent critical reasoning. In this paper, we employ a media content analysis—utilising Gray et al. (2024) hierarchical and universal ontology—to assess the prevalence and presentation of deceptive design patterns in playful apps aimed at young children (aged 5–8 years). Our results show that free apps rely more heavily on deceptive design patterns than paid apps, and that the high-level categorisation of patterns employed most frequently include Interface Interference , Sneaking , and Forced Action . Exploring how these patterns are deployed (including how they manifest at the meso- and low-levels), we identify the ramifications for child users and their caregivers. We propose potential solutions that can be enacted by caregivers, suggest improvements that can be made to digital storefronts, and submit suggested foci for regulatory bodies. Building on existing research, this work contributes a vital step towards characterising the climate of deceptive design patterns in playful apps explicitly targeting young children.