Some Things Never Change: Overcoming Persistent Challenges in Children IR

Maria Soledad Pera; Theo Huibers; Emiliana Murgia; Monica Landoni

doi:10.1145/3726302.3730270

Some Things Never Change: Overcoming Persistent Challenges in Children IR

Maria Soledad Pera
, Theo Huibers
, Emiliana Murgia
, Monica Landoni

Human Media Interaction

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceeding › Conference contribution › Academic › peer-review

1 Citation (Scopus)

Abstract

There is a lack of a steady and solid influx of information retrieval (IR) research that has children (as the user group) as the protagonist. Existing work is scattered, conducted by only a few research groups, and often based on small-scale user studies or data that cannot be widely shared. Moreover, much of the current research focuses on specific age ranges and abilities, neglecting the broader spectrum of children's needs. Consequently, the paucity of IR research on how search and recommender systems serve and/or ultimately affect children translates into one of many 'Low-resource environments' in IR. Drawing from the literature and our experience in this area, we highlight key challenges and encourage greater attention from the IR community to address this critical gap.

Original language	English
Title of host publication	SIGIR '25
Subtitle of host publication	Proceedings of the 48th International ACM SIGIR Conference on Research and Development in Information Retrieval
Editors	Nicola Ferro, Maria Maistro, Gabriella Pasi
Place of Publication	New York
Publisher	ACM Publishing
Pages	3107-3109
Number of pages	3
ISBN (Print)	979-8-4007-1592-1
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1145/3726302.3730270
Publication status	Published - 13 Jul 2025
Event	48th International ACM SIGIR Conference on Research and Development in Information Retrieval - Padova, Italy Duration: 13 Jul 2025 → 17 Jul 2025 Conference number: 48 https://sigir2025.dei.unipd.it/

Conference

Conference	48th International ACM SIGIR Conference on Research and Development in Information Retrieval
Abbreviated title	SIGIR '25
Country/Territory	Italy
City	Padova
Period	13/07/25 → 17/07/25
Internet address	https://sigir2025.dei.unipd.it/

Keywords

2026 OA procedure
Data
Challenges
Information Retrieval
Community
Search
Recommender Systems
Children

Access to Document

10.1145/3726302.3730270

Conference paperFinal published version, 958 KBLicence: Taverne

Cite this

Pera, M. S., Huibers, T., Murgia, E., & Landoni, M. (2025). Some Things Never Change: Overcoming Persistent Challenges in Children IR. In N. Ferro, M. Maistro, & G. Pasi (Eds.), SIGIR '25: Proceedings of the 48th International ACM SIGIR Conference on Research and Development in Information Retrieval (pp. 3107-3109). ACM Publishing. https://doi.org/10.1145/3726302.3730270

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abstract = "There is a lack of a steady and solid influx of information retrieval (IR) research that has children (as the user group) as the protagonist. Existing work is scattered, conducted by only a few research groups, and often based on small-scale user studies or data that cannot be widely shared. Moreover, much of the current research focuses on specific age ranges and abilities, neglecting the broader spectrum of children's needs. Consequently, the paucity of IR research on how search and recommender systems serve and/or ultimately affect children translates into one of many 'Low-resource environments' in IR. Drawing from the literature and our experience in this area, we highlight key challenges and encourage greater attention from the IR community to address this critical gap.",

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note = "{\textcopyright} 2025 Copyright held by the owner/author(s).; 48th International ACM SIGIR Conference on Research and Development in Information Retrieval, SIGIR '25 ; Conference date: 13-07-2025 Through 17-07-2025",

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language = "English",

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Pera, MS, Huibers, T, Murgia, E & Landoni, M 2025, Some Things Never Change: Overcoming Persistent Challenges in Children IR. in N Ferro, M Maistro & G Pasi (eds), SIGIR '25: Proceedings of the 48th International ACM SIGIR Conference on Research and Development in Information Retrieval. ACM Publishing, New York, pp. 3107-3109, 48th International ACM SIGIR Conference on Research and Development in Information Retrieval, Padova, Italy, 13/07/25. https://doi.org/10.1145/3726302.3730270

Some Things Never Change: Overcoming Persistent Challenges in Children IR. / Pera, Maria Soledad; Huibers, Theo; Murgia, Emiliana et al.
SIGIR '25: Proceedings of the 48th International ACM SIGIR Conference on Research and Development in Information Retrieval. ed. / Nicola Ferro; Maria Maistro; Gabriella Pasi. New York: ACM Publishing, 2025. p. 3107-3109.

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceeding › Conference contribution › Academic › peer-review

TY - GEN

T1 - Some Things Never Change

T2 - 48th International ACM SIGIR Conference on Research and Development in Information Retrieval

AU - Pera, Maria Soledad

AU - Huibers, Theo

AU - Murgia, Emiliana

AU - Landoni, Monica

N1 - Conference code: 48

PY - 2025/7/13

Y1 - 2025/7/13

N2 - There is a lack of a steady and solid influx of information retrieval (IR) research that has children (as the user group) as the protagonist. Existing work is scattered, conducted by only a few research groups, and often based on small-scale user studies or data that cannot be widely shared. Moreover, much of the current research focuses on specific age ranges and abilities, neglecting the broader spectrum of children's needs. Consequently, the paucity of IR research on how search and recommender systems serve and/or ultimately affect children translates into one of many 'Low-resource environments' in IR. Drawing from the literature and our experience in this area, we highlight key challenges and encourage greater attention from the IR community to address this critical gap.

AB - There is a lack of a steady and solid influx of information retrieval (IR) research that has children (as the user group) as the protagonist. Existing work is scattered, conducted by only a few research groups, and often based on small-scale user studies or data that cannot be widely shared. Moreover, much of the current research focuses on specific age ranges and abilities, neglecting the broader spectrum of children's needs. Consequently, the paucity of IR research on how search and recommender systems serve and/or ultimately affect children translates into one of many 'Low-resource environments' in IR. Drawing from the literature and our experience in this area, we highlight key challenges and encourage greater attention from the IR community to address this critical gap.

KW - 2026 OA procedure

KW - Data

KW - Challenges

KW - Information Retrieval

KW - Community

KW - Search

KW - Recommender Systems

KW - Children

UR - https://dl.acm.org/doi/epdf/10.1145/3726302.3730270

U2 - 10.1145/3726302.3730270

DO - 10.1145/3726302.3730270

M3 - Conference contribution

SN - 979-8-4007-1592-1

SP - 3107

EP - 3109

BT - SIGIR '25

A2 - Ferro, Nicola

A2 - Maistro, Maria

A2 - Pasi, Gabriella

PB - ACM Publishing

CY - New York

Y2 - 13 July 2025 through 17 July 2025

ER -

Some Things Never Change: Overcoming Persistent Challenges in Children IR

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