However, this demographic composition aligns with region-specific census data in the United Kingdom, which is the only region studied here with detailed census records available. Nevertheless, it would be important to survey parents and children from backgrounds underrepresented here, who may have different attitudes toward digital parent-child sexual communication tools. Future work should therefore use inclusive recruitment strategies to capture the parental attitudes among minority groups, such as community partnerships and targeted oversampling of underrepresented groups. Qualitative approaches such as focus groups or in-depth interviews may also provide richer insights from parents underrepresented in online survey panels. Second, the hypothetical nature of the app may have constrained participants’ engagement with the survey items. [...] This was to avoid an excessively long and tiring survey, which may have reduced respondent attention and answer quality. Yet while reliability was high, the reduced breadth of our measure may have limited its sensitivity and contributed to the lack of significant associations observed. Future work may therefore expand on our measurement to assess whether these influence parental intent. Furthermore, we modified perceived usefulness to a second-order latent construct comprising quality of technology and relevance to parenting. While this approach was empirically justified, it deviated from the traditional TAM framework. [...] From a practical standpoint, the overarching importance of perceived usefulness to parents’ intention to engage in parent-child sexual communication apps should be central to any future app development. We identified that parents who perceive sexuality education as relevant and important were more likely to be motivated to use an app to assist and guide their parent-child sexual communication. Future work should consider how to encourage and inspire less motivated parents to engage in parent-child sexual communication. Our findings directly inform this, as they highlight which sociodemographic groups may be less likely to adopt the technology and why. Tailored information campaigns may then be developed to build trust and highlight the apps’ utility for these groups, as well as explain the benefits of comprehensive sexuality education. [...] Engaging parents through qualitative work in the design process may yield further insights into their preferences and priorities, ensuring that the most desirable app features are incorporated. Additionally, the recent advent of large language models and artificial intelligence technologies offers promising avenues to enhance content customization to the learning needs of the parent-child dyad with the aim to maximize user interaction. Future work may also explore the role of cost-sharing models, such as government subsidies or collaborations between schools, to make development of high-quality parent-child sexual communication tools feasible and the apps freely accessible to families. When a suitable app prototype has been developed, longitudinal studies will be needed to assess how parental engagement evolves as they interact with a parent-child sexual communication app over time. Understanding these dynamics could inform strategies to sustain long-term adoption and maximize the app’s effectiveness.