Exploring A Design Space for Digital Interventions Facilitating Early Adolescents’ Tech Disengagement: A Parent-Child Perspective

Children's excessive technology use remains a significant challenge for parents, especially with early adolescents, given their growing independence and resistance towards parent-set device restrictions. Despite numerous parental control tools, there is limited research on tailored solutions for this age group. This paper advances this design problem by introducing and studying a child-centric design space for digital interventions targeting early adolescents’ technology overuse. Synthesizing literature on mediation strategies, early adolescents’ perspectives, and self-regulation, we first identify four pertinent design dimensions (early adolescents’ agency, supportive parental engagement, mentorship style, and motivation). Using these dimensions, we then create three contrastive design concepts as video prototypes. Utilizing the prototypes in an online study with 13 early adolescents (ages 11-14) and their parents, we provide insights into how both groups conceptualize effective digital interventions. Our findings highlight areas of consensus (e.g., granting early adolescents’ agency) as well as considerable variability (e.g., differing preferred mentorship approaches).