Together with a team of 3 researchers, I organized participatory design sessions with 20 adolescents to investigate two different approaches for conducting adolescent online safety research: diary studies and analyzing social media trace data. I also interviewed 13 of their parents to understand their perspectives on studying the online risk behaviors of minors.
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Socio-Technical Interaction Research Lab
May 2019 — December 2019

When working with adolescents and attempting to understand their unique online experiences, we must iterate and improve upon the ways in which we engage teens in research. In this project, we chose to evaluate two approaches for conducting adolescent online safety research with teens: EMA (ecological momentary assessment) diary studies and analyzing social media trace data provided by teens.

What are the perspectives of teens and parents regarding the teen’s participation in research related to adolescent online risk behaviors?

What types of data are teens and parents willing to share with researchers when studying this topic?

What design-based considerations should be made for systems used to collect data and engage teens in research about their online risk behaviors?

In the first exercise, the adolescents were given a scenario in which they were asked to consider themselves as participants in an EMA diary study about online sexual risk experiences. Participants were individually asked to write down whether they would be comfortable answering different types of questions and why.

The second exercise presented a scenario that asked adolescents to individually answer questions about sharing social media data with researchers (e.g., “What data would you be willing to share?”, “What type of data would you not be comfortable sharing?”).

For the final task, we asked participants to mark up and compare two storyboards (see below), denoting things they liked, disliked, and adding their own design ideas.

We also conducted semi-structured interviews with 13 parents to understand their opinions about their children’s potential participation in future studies investigating online risk behaviors.

Based on our findings, we provided recommendations that move beyond research ethics to relationship-building and youth protection as well as heuristic guidelines for conducting impactful and engaging research with adolescents on sensitive topics, such as their online risk behaviors:

Beneficence — ask teens and parents what motivations they have for participating in the research.

Resolve Value Tensions — identify the value tensions (e.g., confidentiality of teen’s data regarding parent) that exist between teens and parents.

Autonomy and Respect — make sure teens give their explicit assent to participate in the study and to share their data with researchers.

Data Protection and Privacy — prioritize teens’ privacy by collecting only de-identified data when possible and ensure teens’ data is encrypted, securely stored, and reviewed by as few people as possible.

Build Trusting Relationships — invest time in building trusting relationships with adolescent participants.

Help Resources — provide teens with a list of resources for mental health support and risk mitigation while they are engaged in the study.

Warnings — clearly state any legal obligations (e.g., child mandated abuse reporting) and/or warnings (e.g., child pornography) in the informed consent and on screens where teens may invoke these obligations or violate these warnings.

Disclaimers — clearly state that participation in the research study should not be considered as a means for risk reporting.

Foster Engagement — design research tools that are interactive and engaging for teens, so that they can enjoy being part of the research.

It was the first project that I worked collaboratively with other HCI researchers. During the project, I learned how to work with a team of researchers, constructively discuss disagreements, and find consensus. At the end of the project, I helped with writing up a paper that was submitted in May 2020 to CSCW, a premier venue for research in the design and use of technologies. In August 2020, the paper was accepted with minor revisions.