[Air-L] FB groups as method & parental consent

[Rena Bivens]

Hi All,

I'm writing about two issues:
(1) using Facebook groups as part of a research method
(2) obtaining parental consent

Has anyone on the list used Facebook groups within their methodological
strategy?
I plan to create a Facebook group for the first stage of a project I am
conducting on social media and gender-based violence - particularly gender
socialization by teenagers on Facebook. The idea is to recruit students from
various high schools across Canada to join the FB group and then engage
participants in discussions while also sharing videos, images and news
articles. Within a couple of months the intention would be to gain informed
consent to 'friend' a number of the participants and preform a digital
ethnography of their profile pages (including info, wall, photos). Online
focus groups would also be incorporated during fieldwork and as a final
stage face-to-face focus groups will take place to validate or reconfigure
preliminary conclusions.

I'm also hoping to get ethical approval to include under-16s (e.g. 13-18
year olds) but I'm trying to be creative as to how I can obtain parental
consent since participants will come from a wide geographical region. Any
ideas apart from a paper letter that would be mailed or faxed would be
greatly appreciated!

Many thanks in advance and feel free to ask for more information.

Rena

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