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06

ChildSpace: A Contextualized Parental Control Tools for Parents in Pakistan

TAGS
User Research
App Design
Prototyping
User Testing
summary
The recent increase in access and adoption of smartphones by children and adolescents from an early age has increased risks of exposure to harmful online contents. Parental control tools (PCTs) are popular in the West. However, not much has been discovered about its use within developing contexts such as that of Pakistan. We set out to discover the reasons behind low adoption rates of PCTs in Pakistan. Backed by insights from our empirical research, we proposed a contextualized and personalized app design to improve child mediation strategies for parents in Pakistan.
skills
User Research (surveys, interviews), Prototyping, Usability Testing
timeline
12 months
Hi! I'm Hassaan Waqar.
LinkedIn
Resume
Problem Overview.
How can parents in Pakistan mediate the digital activities of their children?
Smartphones have become a central part of childhood. Growing up in a digital world, smartphones offer opportunities for learning, connection, and entertainment. However, their increased access also exposes children to harmful online content such as cyber-bullying, harassment, violence, and inappropriate material. These risks have led to serious concerns for parents with issues like mental health challenges, behavioral disorders, and sleep deprivation becoming more prevalent among children.

The situation has been further exacerbated by the sharp rise in smartphone usage during and after the COVID-19 pandemic. With necessities such as online classes, digital learning resources, and increased reliance on the internet, children’s screen time has grown significantly. For many households, this transition has made it harder for parents to monitor and guide their children’s digital experiences.

While parental control tools (PCTs) are commonly used in the West to help parents navigate these challenges, their adoption remains notably low in developing nations like Pakistan. This raises a critical question: how can parents in Pakistan effectively mediate their children’s online activities while fostering a balance between autonomy and protection?
How did I contribute?
This project formed the thesis of my undergraduate degree in Computer Science at LUMS, Pakistan. I worked alongside a team of splendid people and two supervisors: Hareem Raza, Daniyal Zaidi, Dr. Suleman Shahid (supervisor), Dr. Mobin Javed (supervisor), and I (Hassaan).

All students took equal part in the research, design, and evaluation of the project. I was particularly involved in the user research (survey design and interviews), app design in Figma, and end-user evaluation through usability testing sessions.
Solution at a Glance.
A contextualized mobile app.
We designed and evaluated a high-fidelity prototype of a parental mediation app, ChildSpace, contextualized for Pakistan. The app offered various features such as screen time restrictions, app management, location tracking, web search management etc. based on insight from our user research and usability studies.
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While designing the app, we relied upon principles of visual and interaction design such as Material Design guidelines and Nielsen Norman principles. We prioritized design clarity, simplicity, and contextual understanding while creating our solution.

The design system and complete flow of the app can be found on Figma.
Fig 1. Selected screens from our proposed app solution.
Design Process.
Fig 2. Overall design process showcasing the various milestones.
Initial Findings.
What did we learn from our initial research?
Parents prioritize their children's safety online and employ various strategies depending on their parenting style. These ranged from strict monitoring and restrictions to promoting open communication for balancing safety and autonomy.

Many parents show a lack of confidence in parental control tools, often citing their own limited technical knowledge and their children's ability to circumvent restrictions.

The TOSS framework proposed by Pamela Wisniewski is a significant work within the domain of PCTs, which categorizes parental strategies into monitoring, restriction, and active mediation.
Designing the Survey.
We carried out an online survey to understand parents' level of awareness of risks that children may face online, their attitudes towards the risks, and the existing knowledge and usage of parental control tools.

The survey was circulated among different schools and colleges across Pakistan through official channels such as emails to parents. It was also posted in local online parenting groups on social media platforms like Facebook etc.

The survey was filled with 85 respondents out of which 63 were mothers and 22 were fathers. Most of them (64 parents) claimed to have moderate to high tech expertise. Most parents had 1 or 2 children below the age of 15. The average age of all the respondents' children under 15 was 8.44 years.
How do parents mediate children activities in Pakistan?
Findings from our preliminary survey shed light into the practices and behaviors of Pakistani parents with regards to digital mediation of children.

‍Device Usage: Most children use smartphones regularly, with nearly half spending over three hours daily, primarily watching videos at a younger age and engaging more with social media as they grow older.

‍Awareness of Online Risks: Most parents (82.3%) are aware of online risks, including health concerns, exposure to inappropriate content, and cyber threats.

‍Incidents and Mediation Measures: While 32% of parents have encountered online safety incidents, monitoring practices vary, with stricter control for younger children and 42.3% enforcing time limits.

‍Use of Parental Control Tools: Despite high awareness of online risks, 73% of parents do not use parental control tools, often due to lack of awareness, preference for manual supervision, or trust in their children’s online behavior.
App Selection.
Which PCT should we choose for our initial round of usability testing?
We aimed to explore the reasons behind the limited use of parental control tools (PCTs) in Pakistan, with inadequate technical knowledge being one of our initial hypotheses. To delve deeper, we planned to conduct usability testing with parents in Pakistan. Our objective was to identify a PCT that could offer a holistic experience of its features while remaining easy to use and equipped with a user-friendly design.

We ran an iterative search on Google Web Search, Google Play Store and Apple App Store. After an exhaustive search, we found a total of 33 parental control apps. We quantified each app based on the number of features it offered and chose the top two to provide parents a sense of understanding of all features within PCTs.

The apps chosen included Qustodio and Safe Lagoon as they provided most of the relevant functionalities that parental monitoring tools possess, providing parents a good understanding of what a PCT is.
Fig 3. The app selection process.
Usability Testing and Interviews.
Ensuring a robust protocol for the testing.
Each usability test was divided into three sections: 1) testing the app, 2) filling out a post-test questionnaire, and 3) a qualitative interview. All usability tests were conducted in person where parents were first briefed with the procedure and given some time to get familiar with the app before beginning the test.

We provided each participant a set of tasks from within the app to accomplish. These tasks were designed based on Miller-Cochran and Rodrigo's heuristics. Tasks were attempted independently by the participants. They were encouraged to think aloud during this process. Meanwhile, an observer from the test team took notes and marked errors made. To quantify the evaluation of our usability tests, we used ISO 9241-11 usability standard. It defines usability in terms of effectiveness, efficiency and satisfaction of a product.

Finally, we provided parents a post-test survey to fill in order to gauge their feedback regarding the app they tested. It was divided into three sections: 1) overall experience, 2) feature relevance and 3) ease of usage.
Findings.
What did parents think of the PCTs?
Parents generally appreciated the concept of parental control apps for mediating their children’s online activities. However, concerns arose regarding privacy infringement and the potential to harm trust and relationships with their children. Parents expressed a preference for tools that strike a balance between monitoring and autonomy while facilitating respectful communication.

Usability testing revealed that parents’ technical expertise significantly influenced their ability to navigate parental control apps. Technically adept parents interacted confidently and made fewer errors, while those with limited expertise struggled with the apps’ functionalities. Key usability issues included technical jargon, unintuitive interfaces, and poor alignment with users' mental models, leading to errors and misunderstandings.

Parents identified certain features, such as app usage monitoring and web search history tracking, as the most useful, while features like location tracking and gallery monitoring were deemed less relevant. Cost was a significant barrier, with most parents reluctant to pay for these tools, favoring free or affordable options. Additionally, existing apps were often perceived as overly restrictive, failing to address nuanced use cases, and featuring cumbersome setup processes.
Design Insights.
Extracting insights for our solution.
Based on the findings of the usability testing and interviews, we extracted design insights that would form the basis of our refined design. Those were as follows:
Feature Personalization: We systematically created 4 age buckets of children based on the data obtained for the post tests of the usability tests and determine the perceived relevance of features according to the parents.
Fig 4. Features based on age categories
We also categorized the features which will be present or absent in the application based on whether the child uses an independent phone or shares the phone with parents:
Fig 5. Features based on shared on separate phone
Solution Design.
A contextualized mobile app.
As showcased before, we proposed a high-fidelity prototype of a parental mediation app, ChildSpace, contextualized for Pakistan.
Fig 6. Selected screens from our proposed app solution.
End User Evaluation.
How effective were our designs?
Once the design of the app was complete and all different flows were ready, we wanted to test how parents used the app and whether it fulfilled their requirements or not. For this, we conducted 15 usability tests of our design following the same protocols as before. Once this was completed, we concluded with a post-test questionnaire. This questionnaire gauged parents' overall experience of using the app, and their response on individual features that they found helpful. Participants were chosen through a convenience sample. Most of them were previously involved in the testing of either Safe Lagoon or Qustodio. Each participant tested the flow of the app based on the age of their child. This ensured that they only experienced features relevant to them.
What value does our solution provide?
Next Steps.
How can we improve the solution further?
Child Space is a prototype only and not the developed application. Within the prototype, only the usability of the application could be tested and not the functionality.

It is worthy to note that recruitment of participants was through a convenience sample which resulted in most of the parents being from urban areas with most of them having moderate tech expertise. The sample could be diversified and extended to an even wider range of parents, demographically.
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Generalizability of our solution cannot be affirmed yet. Considering the audience on which the solution was tested, it may or may not be generalizable to parents within lower strata or rural areas of Pakistan.

As a way forward, the prototype is set to be developed into a working application. We propose that as a starting point, the application can be developed as a Android application considering the high market share of Android in Pakistan.

A longitudinal study of the application usage and its impact on the target audience can also be conducted to assert the acceptability of parental monitoring tools, specifically Child Space, within Pakistan. The data collected over the course of this study can also be used to suggest further iterative improvements or actionable insights in the application.
Reach out to me: hwaqar@purdue.edu
Copyright © 2025 Hassaan Waqar. All rights reserved.