期刊名称：PLATFORM : Journal of Media and Communication
电子版ISSN：1836-5132
出版年度：2016
卷号：Special
页码：5-16
出版社：University of Melbourne
摘要：The new sociology of childhood has encouraged social researchers to incorporate children in as much of theresearch process as possible. However, whilst some success has been achieved within traditional ethnographicstudies, netnography has been slow to make this a reality. This article discusses the previous online research intochildren’s virtual worlds, which has rarely incorporated young children into the data collection or researchanalysis processes. The opportunity for researchers to use participatory approaches to collaborating with theirchild participants and collecting online data is limited due to ethical constraints. The ethical challenges ofconducting netnography are compounded by a lack of clear policy about researching with children online. Theissues of informed consent, the protection of children’s identities and the private versus public debate about thenature of the Internet have made conducting online research an ethical minefield. In many cases children’s voiceshave been excluded altogether, and researchers’ experiences within virtual worlds have been minimal. This articlediscusses all these issues, impacting online researchers’ ability to obtain ethics approval and conduct aparticipatory netnography with children. This article also explains the authors’ current netnography ofinvestigating children’s use of virtual worlds. The ethical challenges of conducting a netnography and using aparticipatory approach to including children during the data collection process, is described. Whilst it can bechallenging in overcoming the ethical barriers to conducting a participatory netnography, the authors describeone case in which their first child participant successfully captured some of their own online data. The collectionof this data and the discussion that ensued, demonstrated the value of child participation in the data collectionand analysis process.
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