  The industry for children's apps is thriving at the cost of children's
privacy: these apps routinely disclose children's data to multiple data
trackers and ad networks. As children spend increasing time online, such
exposure accumulates to long-term privacy risks. In this paper, we used a
mixed-methods approach to investigate why this is happening and how developers
might change their practices. We base our analysis against 5 leading data
protection frameworks that set out requirements and recommendations for data
collection in children's apps. To understand developers' perspectives and
constraints, we conducted 134 surveys and 20 semi-structured interviews with
popular Android children's app developers. Our analysis revealed that
developers largely respect children's best interests; however, they have to
make compromises due to limited monetisation options, perceived harmlessness of
certain third-party libraries, and lack of availability of design guidelines.
We identified concrete approaches and directions for future research to help
overcome these barriers.
