Respecting children`s rights in research ethics and research methods

Abstract

In this commentary, we reflect on ethical considerations when conducting research with children in sensitive subject areas, especially in digital environments. Using a child rightscentered approach, we argue that we need to use a more holistic approach to ethics that respects different rights of children. When weighing security and safety risks of examining online communication among children, ethical tensions arise between the right to protection and the right to participation. This tension can be addressed by considering ethical criteria throughout the whole research project. We claim that this also might entail a paradigm shift: research ethics should be developed in interdisciplinary teams, and also with children. The goal of child-centered research ethics is to respect children ́s interests and rights by designing appropriate research methods and processes that engage the autonomy of children while increasing the validity of research results and conclusions. From a children ́s rights perspective, the evolution of digital media is providing young people across the globe with new opportunities relating to their rights: new ways of learning reinforce the right to education and information; increasing social connectivity strengthens the right to participate; expanding communication possibilities support the right to express views and be heard; and the access to games and leisure online supports the right to play. Social media platforms like TikTok also provide children with opportunities to express their personal opinion and offer new spaces for political communication. A lack of effective platform regulation and protection of children, however, means that children are prone to not only content-related, but also interactive risks, which only increased during the boost in media consumption during the COVID-19 pandemic. Interactive risks are both a form of contact risks (e.g., when young people interact with unknown others through chats that can lead to security threats like cybergrooming) and conduct risks (when children put others (and themselves) at risk, e.g., when they produce hateful material about others, like in the case of cyberbullying or hate speech). Thus, these risks range from hate speech and disinformation to cybergrooming or cyberbullying, as well as privacy concerns (see 4C model of online risks; Livingstone & Stoilova, 2021). Digital media provide children with opportunities but also make them vulnerable in ways that impact their right to protection, security, and even their right to life, foreclosing their right to an open future (Feinberg, 1980; Stapf, 2022). From a children ́s rights perspective, children are acting subjects who are more vulnerable than adults. They are developing cognitively and emotionally while building their lived experiences. Paternalistic attempts to protect children in research, without involving children themselves in the research process, may interfere with children ́s self-