I don't have a model, but I do have some thoughts to toss out for discussion: 1) Are the games public access? Do users use anonymous identities that can't be linked to their identities? This is the first hurdle, and I'm sure you've already explored this angle. I'm just curious. 2) Instead of immediately ruling out children because they are high risk (which I perceive to be the norm in US IRB boards), perhaps you should take the stance that it is more unethical to NOT include children in the study. (and frame your IRB request in this way). This is not my idea, of course. I learned it in an online course, when getting updated certification in IRB training. In certain arenas, researchers are required to justify why they're not studying children, especially when the situation warrants using children as subjects. Gaming appears to fall into this category. Has anyone on this list made the argument successfully to their research boards that children should NOT be excluded because the topic really warrants their inclusion? Conversely, has anyone been required by their research boards to explain why they're not including children in the study? Annette Markham At 10:55 AM 10/13/2003 -0600, you wrote:

Hello - I have a student conducting a thesis on the communicative behavior in online games (one will be a U.S. game such as Everquest and another will be a Chinese game). She would like to conduct participant observation. We are having difficulties with our IRB (Committee that approves research on Human Subjects), primarily because players may be children. Research that involves children requires parental consent. Another problem is that the IRB at my university does not have experience with this type of research, and so they don't have models to draw on (or to guide us).

I am interested in hearing from anyone who has been able to gain approval for this type of research - your help is much appreciated -

mj

Michele H. Jackson, PhD Dept of Communication University of Colorado Boulder, CO 80309-0270 303-492-8139 jackson@colorado.edu http://comm.colorado.edu/mjackson

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****************************** Annette N. Markham, Ph. D. Department of Communication University of Illinois at Chicago 1007 W. Harrison St (m/c 132) Chicago, IL 60607-7137 amarkham@uic.edu http://ascend.comm.uic.edu/~amarkham/ ******************************