Michael Preston on Why Children Should Help Design the Technology They Use

Part of our Responsible Tech Voices series, featuring leaders from All Tech Is Human’s 2026 Responsible Tech Guide.

A self-described "Sesame Street kid," Michael Preston has spent his career asking how children can use technology to explore and create. As Executive Director of the Joan Ganz Cooney Center at Sesame Workshop, he brings together learning science, design, and child rights to make the case that kids shouldn't just be protected from technology, but should help shape it.

How did you get here?

I've worked in learning technologies my entire career, but the seeds were planted early. My dad worked at Bell Labs, and we had a UNIX PC at home when I was in elementary school. I loved building things, from LEGO creations to BASIC programs, and I was a Sesame Street kid from the first time I saw it on THIRTEEN. I entered the field during the early days of the internet in NYC public schools, asking a Papert-inspired question: How can kids use technology to explore and create? Work in schools and nonprofits, a graduate internship at Sesame, and a PhD eventually brought me back to Sesame to lead the Joan Ganz Cooney Center. My advice: stay rigorously curious, become good at translating among communities, and stay close to the people affected by your work.

What fields intersect in your work?

No single discipline can do this job alone. Our work draws from developmental and learning science (how children develop and learn); product and interaction design (how insights about and from children can shape high-quality digital experiences); participatory design (how children, families, and educators can meaningfully partner with designers); and child rights, safety, and policy (how technology can respect, protect, and empower children). This work must also be grounded in realism: responsible innovation has to survive product roadmaps, deadlines, and business pressures. The right perspectives must not only be at the table but have enough influence to ensure that developmental principles persist as products evolve.

What's one action you'd like to see?

I would make meaningful participation by children and families a standard, funded part of technology development—starting before the problem and product are fully defined. Waiting until usability testing may be too late. Children are experts of their own experience. Drawing on the tradition of cooperative inquiry, co-design should treat children as partners, not small adults. It should begin early and be sustained; be accessible, inclusive, and compensated; reflect different ages, abilities, backgrounds, and lived experiences; and connect participants with actual product decision-makers. Paired with developmental expertise, co-design can create technology that is more creative, appropriate, and responsive. Our tech future will be better if young people help shape it.

What does a better tech future look like to you?

A better tech future doesn't just protect children from harm. It respects their rights, expands their agency, strengthens their relationships, and invites them to help shape the digital world.

Learn more about Joan Ganz Cooney Center at Sesame Workshop here. Want more perspectives like this? Read the full Responsible Tech Guide, where the interview was featured.