Research in Child–Computer Interaction: Provocations and envisioning future directions

In the 21st century the academic field of Child–Computer Interaction (CCI) arose alongside burgeoning interactive technology and digital media industries that targeted children. We believe that the field of CCIU is at an important point in its development, analogous to when a child becomes a teen. Over the last few years we have each had many informal conversations with other CCI researchers in which we discuss issues such as, what is our responsibility as researchers beyond academe? What values underlie our conceptions of a ”good” childhood and the role of interactive technology in it? And, how do we ensure that our field continues to grow and evolve in ways that are consistent with our responsibilities and values? To address these and other complex questions that have been drawing our attention we came together to reflect, discuss and create a position paper for our community, in which we outline some of the issues we see facing our community at this time. To inform our deliberations with opinions beyond our own we conducted an informal consultation with 25 members of the CCI community. Our responders spanned junior to senior researchers, represented diverse geographies and included industry practitioners. These diverse responses provided further content for our reflections, and helped us see perspectives beyond our own. The result of this informal process is this speculative paper in which we propose a series of seven provocations that aim to disrupt some of the normative assumptions held in our field. Our goal in doing this is to open up dialogue in our community about these issues and promote consideration of the alternative visions we present for where we might focus our attention and efforts. We see our contribution not as truth or a definitive statement of a vision for the field, but rather as our opinion about some of the complex issues we face and that we think should be considered through dialogue as we move into the next phase of our development as an academic and scholarly community. We believe that it is urgent and critical for our field that we take up these questions, explore diverse perspectives, and critically work towards decisions and actions that will define our identity and the value of our contributions as we move forward into the next 20 years of research in CCI.