Monitoring children's physical activity and sleep: a study of surveillance and information disclosure

Abstract

Children and parents build mutual trust through voluntary disclosure, but at the same time parents are guardians who monitor and guide children as they grow up. Emerging technologies offer new opportunities for parents to monitor children while being separated. We investigated how sleep and physical activity data from a Fitbit Flex wristband worn by children (aged 9--12 years) were shared in families over a five-week period. We discovered that the children would optimize their data as they learned more about their own activities, and then started pleasing their parents as a result of being under surveillance. Interestingly, we also saw that parents used the physical activity and sleep data to question children about specific activities, and while this increased parental control, it reduced spontaneous and voluntary information disclosure from the children about their daily activities. This appeared to negatively influence the trust between the children and their parents.