Ah, that's the great puzzle: On the Quest of a Holistic Understanding of the Harms of Recommender Systems on Children

Children come across various media items online, many of which are selected by recommender systems (RS) primarily designed for adults. The specific nature of the content selected by RS to display on online platforms used by children - although not necessarily targeting them as a user base - remains largely unknown. This raises questions about whether such content is appropriate given children's vulnerable stages of development and the potential risks to their well-being. In this position paper, we reflect on the relationship between RS and children, emphasizing the possible adverse effects of the content this user group might be exposed to online. As a step towards fostering safer interactions for children in online environments, we advocate for researchers, practitioners, and policymakers to undertake a more comprehensive examination of the impact of RS on children - one focused on harms. This would result in a more holistic understanding that could inform the design and deployment of strategies that would better suit children's needs and preferences while actively mitigating the potential harm posed by RS; acknowledging that identifying and addressing these harms is complex and multifaceted.

A Multi-Perspective Learning to Rank Approach to Support Children's Information Seeking in the Classroom

We introduce a novel re-ranking model that aims to augment the functionality of standard search engines to support classroom search activities for children (ages 6 to 11). This model extends the known listwise learning-to-rank framework by balancing risk and reward. Doing so enables the model to prioritize Web resources of high educational alignment, appropriateness, and adequate readability by analyzing the URLs, snippets, and page titles of Web resources retrieved by a given mainstream search engine. Experimental results, including an ablation study and comparisons with existing baselines, showcase the correctness of the proposed model. The outcomes of this work demonstrate the value of considering multiple perspectives inherent to the classroom setting, e.g., educational alignment, readability, and objectionability, when applied to the design of algorithms that can better support children's information discovery.

Conversational Agents and Children: Let Children Learn

Using online information discovery as a case study, in this position paper we discuss the need to design, develop, and deploy (conversational) agents that can -- non-intrusively -- guide children in their quest for online resources rather than simply finding resources for them. We argue that agents should "let children learn" and should be built to take on a teacher-facilitator function, allowing children to develop their technical and critical thinking abilities as they interact with varied technology in a broad range of use cases.

Matching Consumer Fairness Objectives & Strategies for RecSys

The last several years have brought a growing body of work on ensuring that recommender systems are in some sense consumer-fair -- that is, they provide comparable quality of service, accuracy of representation, and other effects to their users. However, there are many different strategies to make systems more fair and a range of intervention points. In this position paper, we build on ongoing work to highlight the need for researchers and practitioners to attend to the details of their application, users, and the fairness objective they aim to achieve, and adopt interventions that are appropriate to the situation. We argue that consumer fairness should be a creative endeavor flowing from the particularities of the specific problem to be solved.

Let's Learn from Children: Scaffolding to Enable Search as Learning in the Educational Environment

In this manuscript, we argue for the need to further look at search as learning (SAL) with children as the primary stakeholders. Inspired by how children learn and considering the classroom (regardless of the teaching modality) as a natural educational ecosystem, we posit that scaffolding is the tie that can simultaneously allow for learning to search while searching for learning. The main contribution of this work is a list of open challenges focused on the primary school classroom for the IR community to consider when setting up to explore and make progress on SAL research with and for children and beyond.

Using Conversational Artificial Intelligence to Support Children's Search in the Classroom

We present pathways of investigation regarding conversational user interfaces (CUIs) for children in the classroom. We highlight anticipated challenges to be addressed in order to advance knowledge on CUIs for children. Further, we discuss preliminary ideas on strategies for evaluation.

The Impact of User Demographics and Task Types on Cross-App Mobile Search

Recent developments in the mobile app industry have resulted in various types of mobile apps, each targeting a different need and a specific audience. Consequently, users access distinct apps to complete their information need tasks. This leads to the use of various apps not only separately, but also collaboratively in the same session to achieve a single goal. Recent work has argued the need for a unified mobile search system that would act as metasearch on users' mobile devices. The system would identify the target apps for the user's query, submit the query to the apps, and present the results to the user in a unified way. In this work, we aim to deepen our understanding of user behavior while accessing information on their mobile phones by conducting an extensive analysis of various aspects related to the search process. In particular, we study the effect of task type and user demographics on their behavior in interacting with mobile apps. Our findings reveal trends and patterns that can inform the design of a more effective mobile information access environment.

To Infinity and Beyond! Accessibility is the Future for Kids' Search Engines

Research in the area of search engines for children remains in its infancy. Seminal works have studied how children use mainstream search engines, as well as how to design and evaluate custom search engines explicitly for children. These works, however, tend to take a one-size-fits-all view, treating children as a unit. Nevertheless, even at the same age, children are known to possess and exhibit different capabilities. These differences affect how children access and use search engines. To better serve children, in this vision paper, we spotlight accessibility and discuss why current research on children and search engines does not, but should, focus on this significant matter.

All Together Now: Teachers as Research Partners in the Design of Search Technology for the Classroom

In the classroom environment, search tools are the means for students to access Web resources. The perspectives of students, researchers, and industry practitioners lead the ongoing research debate in this area. In this article, we argue in favor of incorporating a new voice into this debate: teachers. We showcase the value of involving teachers in all aspects related to the design of search tools for the classroom; from the beginning till the end. Driven by our research experience designing, developing, and evaluating new tools to support children's information discovery in the classroom, we share insights on the role of the experts-in-the-loop, i.e., teachers who provide the connection between search tools and students. And yes, in our case, always involving a teacher as a research partner.

CASTing a Net: Supporting Teachers with Search Technology

Past and current research has typically focused on ensuring that search technology for the classroom serves children. In this paper, we argue for the need to broaden the research focus to include teachers and how search technology can aid them. In particular, we share how furnishing a behind-the-scenes portal for teachers can empower them by providing a window into the spelling, writing, and concept connection skills of their students.