Growing Up with Passwords

Children’s development progresses through developmental stages, but there is little understanding about how these stages impact children’s understanding of passwords and security. In this work, we conducted a semi-structured interview with parents of children ranging in age from 3 to 18, and our thematic analysis showed that there did seem to be a relationship between Piagetian and Montessori models of cognitive development and how children interact with passwords. We suggest that interfaces may be able to be designed for specific developmental stages to appropriately support children in learning about security as they mature.