I agree that both 1) the criminal aspect is not something I would worry about and 2) the IRB might actually be perfectly fine with it. A colleague of mine in grad school created fake accounts to examine selfie posting behaviors of teenagers and our IRB did not care at all about that ethical piece of her research. Whether the study design is ethical, however, is a somewhat different question and one that you should co-determine with your students. It might be a fantastic lesson to read about research ethics particularly with a focus on new media (including something from Kalev Leetaru's list of articles) and then have a guided discussion about how to construct an experiment that answers your RQ in an ethical way. They might surprise you with how thoughtful they can be on this subject considering so much of their own social lives are engaged via digital communications and networks. Let us know how it ends up! Liz On Thu, Jan 11, 2018 at 11:48 AM, Michael T Zimmer <zimmerm@uwm.edu> wrote:
Further, the U.S. 9th Circuit just ruled that violating a website’s terms of service is not, in and of itself, a crime. https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2018/01/ninth-circuit-doubles- down-violating-websites-terms-service-not-crime
-- Michael Zimmer, PhD Associate Professor, School of Information Studies Director, Center for Information Policy Research University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee e: zimmerm@uwm.edu<mailto:zimmerm@uwm.edu> w: www.michaelzimmer.org<http://www.michaelzimmer.org>
On Jan 10, 2018, at 3:37 PM, Dan L. Burk <dburk@uci.edu<mailto:dburk@ uci.edu>> wrote:
So, although I am not saying that the study design is ethical, or even necessarily a good idea, I would most definitely take issue with either the specific assertion that violating an adhesion contract is always unethical (it is called an adhesion contract for good reason), and with the more general assertion that violations of law are always unethical.
Also, non-trivially, the assertion is a non-sequitur: minors generally can't enter into binding contracts, so there is by definition no contract for them to violate.
None of that means you should go ahead and do it; only that if you decline to do so, it should be for some other reasons.
Cheers, DLB
Dan L. Burk Chancellor's Professor of Law University of California, Irvine ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ 2017-18 Fulbright Cybersecurity Scholar
On 2018-01-10 09:28, Christopher J. Richter wrote:
Dear Charles,
TOS agreements are most often legally binding. Requiring minors (indeed any study participant, but especially minors) to violate a legal contract, whether online or off, is unethical on the face of it.
Then there is the issue of deception, of whom and how interactions on the fake accounts are deceiving. Deception, by definition, undermines informed consent. Will those who are deceived be debriefed? If not, it's problematic.
Christopher J. Richter, Ph.D. Associate Professor, Communication Studies Hollins University Roanoke VA, USA
On Jan 10, 2018, at 4:44 PM, Charles M. Ess <c.m.ess@media.uio.no<mailto:c .m.ess@media.uio.no>> wrote:
Dear AoIRists,
What are your thoughts regarding the following?
A research project involves a small number of students, legally minors - and requires that they set up fake FB accounts for the sake of role-playing in an educational context? Of course, fake accounts are a clear violation of the FB ToS.
I know we've discussed the ethics of researchers doing this (with mixed results, i.e., some for, some concerned).
But I'm curious what folk think / feel about this version of the problem.
Many thanks in advance, - charles -- Professor in Media Studies Department of Media and Communication University of Oslo <http://www.hf.uio.no/imk/english/people/aca/charlees/index.html>
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