Warnings for Children: Do they Make Sense?

Abstract

To develop products for young children is a real challenge because they have very diverse physical and psychological characteristics, which are in constant change. Therefore, designing a safety warning adequate to their comprehension abilities, which is able to have a truly impact on their behavior, becomes a great challenge. Accidents with children are a world global concern, because these are one of the principal causes of death in this age group. The main types of accidents with children, and the biggest concern, are traffic accidents, drowning, burns, falls and poisoning. Because children in their day-to-day activities are exposed to a large number of toxic products, resulting in accidents, in this study the focus is the design of a warning for poisoning hazard targeting children from 9 to 12 years old. Contrary to what happens for adults, few studies exist that give guidelines on how to develop warnings, or other safety-related communication materials, for young children. After a review of the current warnings for poisoning hazard, a set of 4 focus group sessions with 20 children was conducted. We intended to understand how children can interpret the current warnings and also which are the principal characteristics that children search for in a warning in order to interpret it correctly. Results indicate that the current warnings for poisoning may not be appropriate for young children since a reduced number of children specified the correct meaning of existing warnings. Some guidelines for designing new poisoning warnings are provided.