Regulation of Online Social Network Studies

• Published in: Science (American Association for the Advancement of Science) Vol. 339; no. 6116; pp. 144 - 145
• Main Authors: Shapiro, R. Benjamin, Ossorio, Pilar N.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Washington American Association for the Advancement of Science 11.01.2013; The American Association for the Advancement of Science
• Subjects: Adolescents; Children; Common law; Control; Educational research; Ethics; Games; Human; Human subjects; Institutional review boards; Legal consent; Offices; Online; POLICY FORUM; Professional ethics; Research design; Research ethics; Review boards; Social media; Social networks; Social research
• ISSN: 0036-8075; 1095-9203
• DOI: 10.1126/science.1219025

How should research studying adolescent players of online educational games be conducted responsibly? Research conducted on social networking sites (SNSs) offers scientists the opportunity to understand human social behavior and to use SNSs for experimental interventions, such as increasing civic participation ( 1 ). The number of studies and interventions conducted in SNS environments is growing. Unfortunately, U.S.-based academic researchers and institutional review boards (IRBs) have received no guidance from the Office for Human Research Protections (OHRP) regarding how to apply human subjects regulations to SNS research ( 2 ). Here, we address two ethical and regulatory challenges: (i) whether adolescents who participate in such research through commercial portals, such as Facebook, should be categorized as children for regulatory purposes; and (ii) the extent to which researchers may collect data about SNS participants' Facebook “friends” (FBFs).