Do Children Trust AI, and Should They? Designing and Validating a Child-Centred K-AI Trust Scale for Intelligent Systems

Most trust metrics for intelligent systems are developed for adults, relying on complex reasoning and language that do not align with children’s developmental stages. As intelligent systems increasingly engage with young users, evaluating trust in child-AI interaction has become an urgent concern in HCI. In this paper, we present the iterative refinement and validation of the K-AI Trust Questionnaire, a child-centred instrument that integrates dispositional and situational trust components grounded in child-rights principles. Dispositional trust is captured through a child-adapted Propensity to Trust Technology (PTT), while situational trust is assessed through post-interaction items reflecting children’s experience with AI. Starting with a sample of 289 children, we conducted psychometric analyses and exploratory testing, culminating in a confirmatory factor analysis on a subsample of 85 children. Results supported a unidimensional structure consistent with the PTT, and highlighted the limitations of adult-oriented scales, underscoring the need for developmentally appropriate tools for trustworthy child-AI design.