Ethical Processes and Dilemmas during Research with Youth on Cyber-Risk
Ethical Processes and Dilemmas during Research with Youth on Cyber-Risk

Summary/Abstract: In this article, we reflect on the ethical processes and dilemmas we encountered in almost a de-cade of qualitative research with teenagers about digital technologies and cyber-risk. Our research under-scores both the opportunities and challenges of teenagers’ engagements with digital technologies, includingcyberbullying and image-based sexual harassment and abuse (i.e., non-consensual sexting), on popular socialmedia platforms. Our current research explores teenagers’ experiences with cyber-risk during the COVID-19pandemic, including managing homeschooling (due to lockdowns), online addiction, mental health challeng-es, and encounters with disinformation and misinformation. We discuss our experiences with focus groupfacilitation and one-to-one semi-structured interviews, specifically our reflections on ethical processes en-countered in the field, such as fostering rapport with young participants given the significant age gaps andour lack of knowledge at times, regarding digital technologies or topics like image-based sexual abuse. We alsodiscuss our experiences conducting research with teenagers under the new capacity to consent ethical frame-work, which positions children and youth as often having agency to consent to research independently fromtheir parents or legal guardians. Here, we detail reflections on navigating a new approach and highlight someof the considerations arising from ascertaining assent and consent. Centralizing issues of developing rapport,trust, and ethical processes related to interactional dynamics during interviews, the paper provides insightsand possible strategies for those conducting research with children and youth.

• Details
• Contents