HR2009-02

Children grow by looking at
their parents' "operation"?

2009.02.27 Tabuchi

A preface of the research

When children reach the age of 3, their ego-consciousness will burgeon, and they start to show their interest in things around them.

Sometime we hear from our participants, who come to join our usability tests and/or interviews, about their experience with their children operate the product on their own and cause troubles such as, "my child has played with it on his/her own..." or "I wish it has a child lock"

I too have heard about myself being 3 years old (it has been 36 years ago!), whom have caused troubles such as, unplug the electric product or dial telephone number or change TV channel.

Given this factor, we have decided to see what will children of today, whom are surrounded by many electronic products, do on their own. However, since one of our staff, which has a child, has mentioned that when children reach the age of 3, they will operate various electronic products with intent to do so. Therefore, in the meantime, we have set our research target age to 3 years old and younger.

A preface of the research

We have sent the questionnaire via fax or email to our staff and our registered participants, who are parents of children who are elementary school age or younger, and have asked for their cooperation to respond the questions. In the questionnaire, we have set 2 questions.

Question 1:

1. What operation have your children (age of 3 or younger) done by playing around with the product on their own? Also, what kind of trouble you and your family get by having your children operate the products on their own? What worries you?
2. Your children's gender, their age at that time, type of the product, manufacture, and the name of the product's model.

Question 2:

• Let us know what request you have if any, to the manufacture you have responded in question 1.(The goal for task 2: Check his message, "I am fine in Morioka city now", on Wilcom's messaging board for disaster.)

Result

- The respondents

We have made up about 22 valid responses (16 females and 6 males) out of 26 who have returned the questionnaire to us. Incidentally, the respondents who are in their 50's and 60's have responded about their grandchildren.

- Children and grandchildren structure of respondents

The total number of children and grandchildren of the respondents is 27 (14 boys and 13 girls). I have assumed that majority will be boys, but I have been wrong.

- The ranking of products, the children (age 3 or younger) play around on their own

The responses have been received of total of 41 cases with 27 young children.
From the result of aggregation, the product, young children play around with the most on their own, is mobile phone (6 cases), while the 2nd most is PC (5 cases), and VCR or DVD player comes to 3rd (4 cases)(bar chart). Those 3 products has accounted for half of all. Overall, all of those products are used daily, which means most are difficult to lock away from the children.

Especially with the mobile phone, because it is a small electronic device, where people frequently use, with different shapes and colors, it must be a soft target where young children want to touch.

What are those children actually doing by touching with these products? Let's look at closely to their lively action.

The first: Mobile phone

• - The action taken by children -
• "Dial somebody from the history list or the address book"(everyone)
• "By copying the adult, she pressed the random number, which accidentally connected to someone"(girl 2 and 3 mo).
• "Release hold facility of the key (press down the enter key) on her own"(girl 1 and 3 mo).
• "Press the keys randomly, and connect to the web site of mobile phone"(girl 1 and 3 mo).

Dial to someone is the most case that happen with the mobile phone. Because with mobile phone, you can call someone with easy key operation from call register or outgoing history, it is likely that by playing around, the children accidentally dials to someone.
Also regarding the address book, it seems the person listed on top of the address book is likely to be called (girls 2, 2 and 1/2 mo). If your name starts from A, doesn't this sound should familiar to you?

What troubles the most is to bother those people the children accidentally dial to.

• - Comments by parents and grandparents -
• "I noticed that the person had answered the phone, so I apologized to the person with precipitation" (female 58).
• "Because my child accidentally left my number to the call registration of someone, whom I do not have any particular thing to say, the person returned the call. When that person is someone I have fallen out of touch, I feel bad"(male 33).
• "It was early in the morning when my child accidentally made a phone call to someone"(female 33).

Lock it by pressing down the key longer, can get unlocked. Therefore, It may be necessary to think further action, such as set the password etc.

The 2nd: PC

• - The action taken by children -
• "Turn off the power of desktop PC"(Boys 3, 2 and 1/2 mo).
• "When he was playing around with the keyboard, the power turned on imperceptibly, and the default screen was displayed"(boy 6 mo).
• "Scrolls with mouse scroll wheel"(girl 1 and1/2 mo)
• "Opens the side panel of PC itself, on her own"(girl 1mo).

Certainly, they will not do things such as connect to the internet and order pizza, but if the power is turned off while using it, you will not just lose the data, but may give a great damage to the PC itself, so this is something you should be careful of. Because the look of recent desktop is simple, and only thing that stands out can be power button with LED, which make children want to press it.
The trouble or worry is not about them operate the product, but about them breaking it.

• - Comments by parents and grandparents -
• "Because my child operates by applying force to unusual direction, the wheel may break someday, and will not function anymore"(male 33).
• "My child opened the PC on one’s own, and dropped something on the motherboard. I was glad that it did not break, but since then I had put the PC on a higher place"(male 33).

The 3rd: VCR (VHS and DVD)

• - The action taken by children -
• "Turn on/off the power, as well as open/close the disk tray"(boy 1 and 3 mo)
• "She shoved her hand in the slot for video tape, and try to take the tape out by force"(girl 2 and 10 mo)
• "He almost entered the video tape into the slot in reverse"(boy 2 and 1/2 mo)

All cases are common over the slot of VCR. The aspect where the medium appears and disappears (sucked in) shall be interesting for children. However, it may be difficult for small children to determine which side is the right side.
Trouble is the damage that can be generated during the operation. Also because the VCR is usually located where it is easy for children to reach, even if the slot is small, they can put their small hands inside it. Therefore, we wish the product side would exhibit some kind of concern for it.

• - Comments by parents and grandparents -
• "The trouble is that the slot of VCR can be easily opened manually... Since it is built with the premise to be operated by remote control, I see no reason to have buttons for the slot on the main unit"(male 32).
• "Because the disk is pushed in by main force, or press the disk tray down, I get worried if hand gets shut in, or if the product breaks"(male 32).

For other products, the following responds have been received.

Land phone

• - The action taken by children -
• "Once she was holding the cordless handset, it got connected to an emergency call"(girl 1)
• "Because he accidentally pressed the number 119 for ambulance, the voice of fire service was heard from the speaker"(boy 3).
• "He pushed the push-button digit on his own, and it got connected to abroad. The parent answered the phone, but he/she could not apologize by not speaking their language. The bill came after that which surprise him/her"(boy 3)

Digital camera

• - The action taken by children -
• "The image was deleted"(girl 1 and 1/2 mo, boy 3).
• "Turned the power on, and taking himself"(boy 3)

Gas cooking appliance

• - The action taken by children -
• "Turned the knob of gas cooking appliance, and put out the fire"(boy 1 and 4mo)
• "He pressed the ignition switch on his own"(boy 2 and 4 mo)

Car(car interior)

• - The action taken by children -
• "When sitting on the safety seat, he operated the door lock, and opened the door while the car is moving"(boy 2)

- Request

As the request for the manufacturer, half of 22 parents wish for measures such as an addition of child safety lock or safeguard feature. However, in the other hand, there are comments that those cases generate when parents are careless or it is necessary for them to keep eye on their children, which tell that there are people who think parents should take responsibility for their children's action.

• - Comments by parents and grandparents -
• "Is there any way to make difficult for my child to turn off the power? In particular, something like washing machine is difficult to move to where children can reach their hands. Unlike those babies who can keep playing in the child safety seat, those small children with wider field of activities will begin to show interest in home electronic appliances, which cause troubles. I wish there are child safety locks also for PC etc, which will be useful"(female 38)
• "I would feel safe if there is a child safety lock incorporated, which is easy for the parents to handle"(male 32).
• "If there was a feature in the cell phone that will confirm "do you want to call?" when dial early in the morning of late at night, the phone call would not go through"(female 33)

The child safety lock that guards against children's arbitrary operation exists. However, the lock function should be easy for adult and difficult for small children to use, and combining this two can be very difficult like problem solving.

Impression

By looking at those responses, I get the impression that major action taken by small children when touching the product is to press buttons or switches, and that same tendency can be seen with any kind of products.

In this modern age, the products where you can do so many things with easy button operation are overflowing. It is understandable that small children, whom only can take actions such as push, pull or pop, can operate these products like how adults operate them.

There certainly are behaviors that cannot be incidentally happen, but I figure that children watch very closely to the parent's behavior, and building up their experience by touching things. We all should watch over reliably to the children's growth, but it should be under condition where we guard children from any accidents, and minimize the damage from equipments. The manufacturer side should also give full attention to this.

Created in 2009.03.31