New technologies, new concerns: Negotiated ethics for a research community

Abstract

With increased access to digital technologies and the omnipresent nature of social media applications and online services new concerns for ethical research practice arise. Currently children and youths are at the forefront of the adoption of new technologies along with naïve users and the digitally illiterate. With lessening degrees of support from parents, teachers and institutions, trusted information sources are becoming more difficult to find. Digital literacies and other 21st century skills are now a necessity. Examining some of the ethical challenges that citizens now face in the digital world, this paper addresses questions on the applicability of current ethics policies governing research with human participants. In order to protect participants, and to promote ethically sound research, it has become essential to expand our thinking about the ethical and the legal aspects to also include the technical issues related to research.