“I am a research assistant for a project that involves studying participants in a website for a particular deviant sexuality. The only way to study this group is to join as a member. We made up several fake email accounts in order to make several fake membership profiles, and we sign in under these profiles to examine the profiles of the real members. Members have begun to contact my persona. I have found out that they get a notification if i look at their profile..”
My first thought is whether or not this is any different that an old man posing as a younger boy to reach girls that are younger. Personally I would say that it is very different but I am curious as to if it is techniqually any different. It reminds me of the show on TV where the news people pose as a young girl, get the guy to come to the house, and then dramatically tackle him- which is my favorite part.
I would ask the research assistant if material was being used for observance or for data collection. I would feel that data collection may be violating research ethics if you are talking to someone without their knowledge. However I think that perhaps if you are just observing and not participating the data might be ethical. I would like to know if there is something ethically wrong to create fake accounts for the purpose of research, or if you have to be honest.
After the lecture on research ethics I realized that posing as another person and gathering information from a site where the people believe they are in a private atmosphere is against research ethics. Their website is a member only setup and the the participants believe that their space is private. By posing as someone in the community and using personal conversation with them, the researchers would be unethical.
This makes me a little worried as to how I’m going to compare websites. Since I am not focusing so much on the context of conversations, as much as the societal roles the members are taking, I feel that I might not be in violation of research ethics. Some of the websites I am considering are not member only to view, but in order to post. In this regard I do not feel like I would be unethical to use information gathered in the public realm.
