Hey Google, Do Unicorns Exist?: Conversational Agents as a Path to Answers to Children's Questions

Children are known to be curious and persistent questionaskers. The pervasiveness of voice interfaces represents an opportunity for children who are not yet fluent readers to independently search the Internet by asking questions through conversational agents such as Amazon Alexa, Apple's Siri, and the Google Assistant. Through a two-week, in-home deployment study involving 18 families (children aged 5-6 and their parents), we report on which questions children choose to ask the conversational agent, the answers the agent provided, challenges in use, and their perceptions of the technology. Based on our analysis, we identify several considerations for the design of voice-based conversational agents that aim to support young children's question-asking behavior and subsequent development.