[Air-L] Ethical problem in a Twitter reaserch

[Charles M. Ess]

perfect - thanks for the most helpful clarification, Sonia!
- c.

On 18/12/17 10:35, Livingstone,S wrote:
> Children cannot legally consent to use of their personal data, precisely because they are children. Hence in the US COPPA applies, and in Europe the General Data Protection Regulation., both of which require verifiable parental consent for the use of children's personal data. Much depends on the legal definition of personal data, of course.
> 
> I would also urge a child-rights approach to research ethics. For instance, contrary to what many researchers believe, and contrary to companies' T&C, in my research children have told me that they consider Facebook to be public and Twitter to be privacy (cf Nissenbaum's contextual integrity).  So my understanding is that this is incorrect below, and that much social media research is improper....
> 
> Best, Sonia
> 
> 
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Air-L [mailto:air-l-bounces at listserv.aoir.org] On Behalf Of Charles M. Ess
> Sent: 18 December 2017 08:58
> To: Lior Beserman <liorbeserman at gmail.com>; air-l at listserv.aoir.org
> Subject: Re: [Air-L] Ethical problem in a Twitter reaserch
> 
> Hi,
> 
> one fairly standard approach is to go ahead and conduct your research - though probably with the additional step of setting up a second database that assigns random identifiers to the original accounts / profiles.
> 
> Once you have completed your analyses - then the question becomes what you need to include as explicit quotes in the publication / dissemination phase.  Typically, these are only a few - i.e., in contrast with 10s if not 100s of thousands (if not more) of texts gathered in.
> Whereas informed consent is impossible for the latter - it is considerably more feasible for the former.  So one possibility is to contact the writers you want to quote and ask for their permission.
> 
> Of course, this will not directly address the question as to whether they are minors - and you're exactly right that this is a critical ethical (and, in many jurisdictions, a legal) issue.
> 
> At this point, some will argue that this is not your problem - the informants have read (well, at least clicked through) the ToS and that such posts are by a kind of default public and so don't require anything more than acknowledgement (copyright to the author).  If a minor is involved, on this view, ethical obligations to vulnerable populations are overridden by a kind of legal coverage ostensibly provided by their agreeing to the ToS.
> 
> Others - especially from deontological and ethics of care perspectives - will argue that protection of minors overrides any legal contract established in the ToS.  How you directly ascertain the identity of someone on Twitter while asking for their permission to use their quote is, of course, not unproblematic.  But these days, it's harder to be a dog unnoticed as a dog on the Internet and so it might be more straightforward than say 10 or certainly 20 years ago.
> 
> My 2 cents - good luck and looking forward to the discussion!
> 
> - charles
> 
> On 18/12/17 07:46, Lior Beserman wrote:
>> Dear  Air-L Community,
>>
>> I have encountered an ethical problem which I am sure I am not the
>> first to encounter and so would appreciate your say on the matter.
>> I am doing a discourse analysis on a twitter hashtag and I have no way
>> to discern that I am not using under age (under 18) users tweets.
>> As there are completely different questions and guidelines to research
>> minors from an ethical perspective, I was wondering how other people
>> have dealt with this problem in their research?
>>
>> Thank you,
>> Lior Beserman Navon,
>>
>> Ph.D. Candidate
>>
>> The Department of Sociology & Anthropology
>>
>> The Hebrew University of Jerusalem
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> 
> --
> Professor in Media Studies
> Department of Media and Communication
> University of Oslo
> <http://www.hf.uio.no/imk/english/people/aca/charlees/index.html>
> 
> Postboks 1093
> Blindern 0317
> Oslo, Norway
> c.m.ess at media.uio.no
> _______________________________________________
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-- 
Professor in Media Studies
Department of Media and Communication
University of Oslo
<http://www.hf.uio.no/imk/english/people/aca/charlees/index.html>

Postboks 1093
Blindern 0317
Oslo, Norway
c.m.ess at media.uio.no