Document Type

Article

Publication Date

9-2022

Abstract

Children encounter difficulties when they login to computers or websites because they have challenges remembering passwords. To improve children’s authentication, we conducted a series of formative studies with children (n = 8, ages 6–11) to understand their authentication practices with respect to a traditional text-based password and a new graphical picture-based password called KidsPic. The results obtained from these initial investigations, a security analysis of these authentication mechanisms, and participatory design sessions with children (ages 6–11) inspired design enhancements to KidsPic. We subsequently conducted a study comparing KidsPic to a traditional text-based authentication mechanism (n = 40, ages 6–11). The results and analysis indicate that children experience significantly more memorability challenges when using an alphanumeric authentication mechanism than with the graphical password KidsPic.

Copyright Statement

This is an author-produced, peer-reviewed version of this article. © 2022, Elsevier. Licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 International license. The final, definitive version of this document can be found online at the International Journal of Child-Computer Interaction, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijcci.2022.100515.

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