Playful but Persuasive: Deceptive Designs and Advertising Strategies in Popular Mobile Apps for Children

Mobile gaming apps are woven into children’s daily lives, including those of children too young to recognize commercial intent. When apps embed manipulative interfaces or heavy advertising, they place young users in environments that conflict with their right to play and to protection from exploitation, contributing to prolonged screen time, disrupted self-regulation, and accidental in-app purchases. We examined 20 popular, free-to-download children’s mobile games in German-speaking regions using persona-based cognitive walkthroughs to assess the prevalence of deceptive design patterns and advertising. Despite platform policies and EU frameworks such as the General Data Protection Regulation and the Digital Services Act, every game contained deceptive design patterns that can nudge, confuse, or pressure children, with a median of 5.5 distinct patterns per app. Advertising was nearly ubiquitous (90%), predominantly non-skippable, and deeply intertwined with deceptive patterns throughout gameplay. We discuss what these findings imply for HCI research on ethical game design, platform responsibility, and regulatory enforcement in the EU.