Minors under 18 cannot legally provide informed consent for UX research participation. If your product has child or teen users, you need two separate agreements before any session begins: written consent from a parent or legal guardian, and verbal assent from the minor themselves. These are not interchangeable, and skipping either one is an ethical and legal failure.
Children and teens use digital products, but their needs and behaviors diverge sharply from adult users. Excluding them from research means designing blind. The Nielsen Norman Group piece breaks down exactly why that gap matters and what you miss when you default to adult-only samples.
The full article details how to structure both the consent and assent process in practice, not just in principle. If you run usability tests, surveys, or interviews with anyone under 18, the procedural specifics here are worth reading before your next session.
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