Kids, Exercise, and Technology: An Ethics Case Study

A technology company recently released a “fitness watch” aimed at children and designed with the goal of getting users to exercise more. According to an Endgadget review, the product looks like other smartwatches, and allows kids to communicate with people from a list of curated contacts, but its primary function is activity tracking.

As the reviewer described it, “celebratory animation” is triggered when the user reaches pre-set activity goals (kids are supposed to set their own goals in the watch’s companion app). The watch also features a “customizable humanoid creature that lives in the device, whose happiness is dependent on the completion of daily health goals.” After customizing her own character, the reviewer added that she

couldn’t help but get attached. It turns out there are a bunch of skin colors, eye shapes, hair types and mouths to choose from, so you can make your [creature] as human or nonhuman as you want. Creating a character is always fun, and I could see kids getting really into crafting their virtual friends and switching up their outfits as they unlock more clothing and accessories.

The reviewer also noted that “[a]fter the first time [she] saw how dejected [the creature] looked when [she] accidentally neglected [her] goals for a few days, [she never wanted to let [the creature] down again.”

There are also “daily quests” for the user to complete. Some of those include playing games on the watch (without needing to move)—but the playing will be cut off after some time, and the user will only be allowed to return to the game after reaching activity targets (this can happen repeatedly). The watch also sends users notifications/reminders about reaching their activity goals.

Discussion Questions:

1. Who are the stakeholders impacted by the development and deployment of this product? Who should be consulted in the process of developing and deploying such a product?
2. What additional facts (not included in the description above) might you need in order to evaluate the ethical impact of this product?
3. What ethical issues do you spot in the description above, in terms of both benefits and harms? Evaluate this project through the ethical 'lenses' of rights, justice, utilitarianism, the common good, virtue ethics, and care ethics: See “A Framework for Ethical Decision Making” for a concise discussion of those lenses.