Mark S. Frankel and Sanyin Siang.  Ethical and Legal Aspects of Human Subjects Research on the Internet:  A Report of a Workshop June 10-11, 1999.  American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), November, 1999 – www.aaas.org/ssp/dspp/sfrl/projects/intres/report.pdf

• Internet research has ranged widely from naturalistic observation to surveys.  Some difficulties in this sort of research include: anonymity, pseudonym use, informed consent in online contexts, supposed privacy in cyberspace, and the tensions between private and public spaces online.
• IRBs are still grappling with the net as a research forum because of the ethical, legal, and technical issues surrounding online research.
• Human subject research takes into account the following: autonomy of the subject in the research area, beneficence for the researched subject (minimize harm and maximize benefits of research subjects).
• Benefits are defined as “gain to society or science through contribution to knowledge base, gain to the individual through improved well being, or empowerment of the individual by giving voice” (5).
• Internet research can lead to confusion about one’s geographic location, race, and gender.
• Email can be problematic because: who owns the computer, who owns the servers, who has access to the servers files, etc.  This could raise issues of possible harm.
• Vulnerable populations like children or mentally handicapped folks are exposed to risk because of the pseudonymity of many online transactions.  The researcher has a difficult time discovering the “real” identities of people studied.
• Privacy in public spaces – through shared forums – creates a problem as the space is thought of as private, but is accessible as public.
• Questions about informed consent online:  When is it required?  How can it be obtained?  How can it be validated? (9).
• Informed consent considers the following things: relate the information to the subjects, ensure the subjects comprehend the information, and obtain the voluntary agreement from the subjects to participate.
• Deception on both the part of the researcher and the researched creates an interesting question for online research.  This can be as a “lurking” researcher or someone who makes up an identity to participate in the community.
• The debriefing process post-study is difficult for the online researcher because of anonymity.
• There is a technical (is the data accessible) and a psychological (how private is the internet space thought to be) aspect to privacy online.
• The technical “know-how” of the researched online can further complicate notions of privacy and confidentiality. (15)
• The authors give a great “action agenda” to determine how to answer some of the questions I’ve created in this blog post on pgs. 17-19.

Important Sources:

• Herring, S. “Linguistic and Critical Analysis of Computer-Mediated Communication: Some Ethical and Scholarly Considerations.” The Information Society 1996. 12:153-168.
• Kelman, HC. “Privacy and Research with Human Beings.” Journal of Social Issues 1977 33(3):169.
• Reid, E. “Informed Consent in the Study of On-line Communities: A reflection on the Effects of Computer-Mediated Social Research.” The Information Society. 1996 12:169-174.
• Childress, CA and Asamen, JK. “The Emerging Relationship of Psychology and the Internet: Proposed Guidelines for Conducting Research.” Ethics and Behavio.r 1998 8(1):19-35.