Big Data, Little Direction: Towards the Co-Production of Ethical Practice in Big Data Research with Minors

Abstract

Much has been written about the ethics of conducting research with minors, due in part to the novelty of ethical issues that emerge when conducting research with this population. Similarly, much has been written about the ethics of conducting research that collects digital data, again, due in part to the novelty of ethical issues that emerge when digital data, typically big data, is involved in research. While emerging digital health technologies offer researchers new avenues to collect real-time behavioural data, little is known about current ethical dimensions, considerations, and challenges that are associated with conducting digital data collection in research with minors. As such, this presentation will report the findings of a scoping review which explored existing literature to canvass current ethical issues that arise when using digital data collection in research with minors. Themes which emerged across the reviewed literature included: consent, data handling and ownership, children’s data rights, observing behaviours that may result in risk of harm to participants or others, private versus public conceptualizations of data generated via social media, and gatekeeping. Based on the reviewed literature, conducting research that involves the collection of minors’ digital data involves a degree of uncertainty that appears inevitable given the evolving ways in which digital data is produced, particularly among younger generations which has led to increased ethical scrutiny of such research. The literature suggests that this uncertainty can often lead to the preclusion of minors from otherwise important lines of research inquiry. While uncertainty warrants ethical consideration, increased ethical scrutiny and restricting the conduct of such research raises its own ethical challenges. I conclude by discussing the ethical merits of co- producing ethical practice between researchers and minors as a mechanism to proceed with such research while addressing concerns around uncertainty.

Date
Oct 2, 2020 10:15 AM — 10:22 AM
Danica Facca
Danica Facca
Faculty of Information and Media Studies, Western University