Family dynamics on data tracking and sharing with child-oriented wearables

Child-oriented wearables, such as activity trackers, smartwatches, and GPS devices, are increasingly framed as tools for safety, health, and connectivity. Beyond individual self-tracking, these devices also serve as expressions of parental care through shared data practices. This paper examines how these technologies mediate children’s understanding of datafication and dataveillance, and why families adopt them by examining the benefits and values families attribute to their use. We report on 12 co-design sessions, each involving a parent and at least one child. Our findings support prior research on the early normalization of datafication and dataveillance without a corresponding depth of understanding of these concepts and processes. These technologies do not automatically foster awareness of data practices. Normalization of data tracking and sharing is reinforced both by the introduction of wearables as expressions of parental care and family values and by the lack of sustained child-parent dialogue, which emerges as a critical factor. The co-design sessions reveal both willingness and openness among children and parents to engage in such dialogue, while also suggesting that these conversations require structured facilitation to occur regularly. As situational mediators, wearables function alternately as conversation starters and as sources of tension. We argue that, for these technologies to support reflective mediation, future designs should prioritize family co-use, incorporate prompts that support meaningful dialogue about data tracking and sharing, and make datafication and dataveillance processes transparent to enhance children’s understanding and agency.