Exploring the Risks of Children Engaging with Programmable Iot

Abstract

This paper reports on IoT4Kids, a study exploring the privacy, security and safety implications of children programming the Internet of Things. The study focuses on the BBC micro:bit as one device that allows children to create rudimentary IoT devices. Prior publications have described the first stage of this study, which involved workshops with child participants. This paper instead focuses on the second stage of the project, which involved conducting key informant interviews with representatives from our project partners in order to understand the risks children face with interacting with programmable IoT devices. We describe themes that emerged from these interviews, along with implications for the study and for future work in this area.