Aki Maita was thirty and working for Japanese toy company Bandai when she had her lightbulb moment. She wanted to create an affordable ‘pet’ for kids, one that wouldn’t make a mess or run up expensive bills but would still teach important values about caring for others.

From this the Tamagotchi was born. Released in Japan in 1996, the tiny plastic keychain egg was equipped with a monochrome LCD screen that contained a ‘digital pet’. It’s since gone on to achieve sales of over 82 million worldwide.

Some psychologists argued that Tamagotchis could teach valuable lessons, but that more sensitive children could be severely hurt by the toy if their digital creature took a turn for the worst. Which was easily done. Tamagotchis could die in less than half a day if left without care. Another concern was that the connection to the toy could start replacing more meaningful and necessary human connection, essential to a child’s health and development.

Two decades on from the Tamogotchi and the complexities of designing digital experiences for children have only amplified. The bleeps and bloops of a Tamagotchi have been drowned out by the sleek pings of the iPhone, and the options for digital engagement are much more far reaching than just ‘feeding’ and ‘cleaning’ a digital egg on your keyring.

So, how can brands and tech companies navigate this complexity to deliver ethical digital experiences for children?

Educating parents 

When designing for children, brands need to ensure they strike the right balance between education and entertainment.

The education part is often more directed to the parents. Parents are fully aware of how distracting digital devices can be, but often don’t know exactly what the right level of oversight is required, as it varies drastically with app and age.

The onus is predominantly on the designer to deliver this. When you make a digital experience for children, the role of the parent should be considered at each stage of the development process. This moves beyond just thinking about the human-user to considering the wider context of use and the role of the parent or guardian.

This means companies should have transparent guidance and protection frameworks, standards they hold themselves to that are baked into the principles that guide the brand and experiences.

We have gained significant insights as part of our work, such as in the launch of the Superkicks app for the FA. The FA was looking for ways to increase engagement with football amongst children, and to encourage physical activity and fitness. Off the back of research the FA conducted, we designed a reward-based tablet app that gets kids playing outside and has hundreds of fun challenges to train their bodies and minds.

To better understand how children would use the app, we invited the first child to use it with minimal guidance, and then tasked them with explaining the app to a second child, with a parent or guardian present to oversee. This provided the team with a number of key insights but most notable was how big the variation in understanding can be between ages five to eight. Creating an experience that works for a wide age-range is a difficult challenge, particularly when reading skills vary across the age groups.

Data and ethical design 

Tamagotchis left a trail of noise and emotion but they didn’t leave behind much data.

Today the data-trail is a critical factor to consider when creating digital experiences for children. The experience will produce data, and this can be leveraged in some ways, but it has to be managed ethically.

Vodafone recently teamed up with Disney to launch Neo, a smart watch designed for kids. Imbued with Disney characters, the smart watch lets users stay in touch with parents via calls and allows parents to track the user via GPS. But is it designed with ethics in mind?

Both Disney and Vodafone are commercially driven entities. This poses a risk where profit is prioritised over safety. To address such concerns, these brands could have considered teaming up with independent third-party organisations more closely focused on education and digital wellbeing.

Where is the data captured by this watch going? This is a question that was posed to Revolut following the launch of Revolut Junior, a bank account designed for parents who want their children to gain financial skills and to learn how to use and manage money.

This data-capture of children is strategic, and it can be effective. Both Vodafone and Revolut will no doubt be looking to guide these customers as they reach adulthood, embedding them in the brand and helping them adopt behaviours linked to their offering.

This isn’t necessarily a bad thing, but companies need to show that their experience is considered and mindful of ethics so trust in both kids and parents can be adopted early.

Baked-in empathy  

Tamagotchis were a social experiment that shone a light on the powerful effects digital experiences can have on children. Two decades later, in a world now awash with digital touchpoints and experiences, it has never been so important to heed the lessons our egg-encased, keyring attached, needy digital companions taught us about ethical digital design.

At its core, ethical design is a question of incorporating empathy directly into the process from the start, for the people who use the products and services. Brands need to empathise and better understand the needs of those they are designing for and that means creating products that consider mental, emotional and physical health, alongside how they can or should influence the behaviours, attitudes and development of the children who will buy and use them.

Brands need these ethical questions integrated across the design process, working to ensure that any experience is a positive virtuous cycle for both the business and the people who use them.