Abstract
In recent years, the growing popularity of smart speakers (e.g., Google Home and Alexa) has facilitated young children’s interaction with internet-based devices and provided them with more opportunities to obtain access to online information. This review summarizes the current state of the research by examining smart speakers’ core characteristics, children’s conceptualization and interaction with smart speakers, and the influences on children’s learning and habits. Our review shows that (a) the natural language processing technology and central computing system (Internet) contribute to the uniqueness of smart speakers; (b) although children tend to attribute human characteristics (e.g., smart and friendly) to smart speakers, they might judge these voice assistant devices as neither explicitly living nor nonliving in ontological perception; (c) children’s overattributing certain knowledge (e.g., questions about personal information) to smart speakers does not necessarily mean that this device is believed to be omniscient; and (d) in terms of promoting children’s learning, smart speakers might not be more effective than a real human, and the interaction with smart speakers may not be conducive to children’s maintenance of civilized social norms. Implications for children’s conceptualization and interaction of smart speakers and the design of children-oriented smart agents are also discussed.
Highlights
Following touchscreen devices, smart speakers (e.g., Google Home from Google, Alexa from Amazon, and Tmall Genie from Alibaba) have become popular for children in the past five years
Given that comprehensive understanding of how young children understand and interact with smart speakers is of great importance for parents and educators to help their children interact with this emerging technology rationally, in this review, based on the latest empirical findings, we summarize the current state of research on children and smart speakers and hope to answer several questions of interest to researchers as well as parents: (1) the core features of smart speakers; (2) how children aged 3-12 years conceptualize smart speakers; (3) how children interact with smart speaker devices; and (4) how smart speaker devices impact children’s learning and daily behavior
To find studies that fit the scope of this review, the literature was identified by searching for “child ∗ AND” from Web of Science, ACM, and Google Scholar
Summary
Smart speakers (e.g., Google Home from Google, Alexa from Amazon, and Tmall Genie from Alibaba) have become popular for children in the past five years. As children have increasingly gained access to smart speakers, this emerging internet-based device has not escaped the attention and doubt of researchers and educators. Given that comprehensive understanding of how young children understand and interact with smart speakers is of great importance for parents and educators to help their children interact with this emerging technology rationally, in this review, based on the latest empirical findings, we summarize the current state of research on children and smart speakers and hope to answer several questions of interest to researchers as well as parents: (1) the core features of smart speakers; (2) how children aged 3-12 years conceptualize smart speakers; (3) how children interact with smart speaker devices; and (4) how smart speaker devices impact children’s learning and daily behavior. 40 research articles, conference presentations, or published proceedings were identified
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