In order to better understand online bullying triggers, a group of researchers will recruit secondary school students who are social media users. Researchers will first approach students at school with a questionnaire concerning online harassment on social media sites. Among those who report at least one instance of online harassment in the past year (and with further permission of their parents) researchers will invite them to participate in more in-depth study. In this more in-depth phase, researchers will be given access to view the student’s social media platform on which the harassment occurred. The researchers will study the initial circumstances surrounding the harassment, in order to ascertain the proximate causes of such harassment.

Developed for use at an October 2016 CENTRES workshop on the Social, Behavioural and Educational Research. © 2016 National University of Singapore. All rights Reserved.

Questions for Discussion

1. What are the main forms of subject risk in this case?
2. Should the study qualify as “minimal risk”?
3. Should the study qualify for exempted or expedited review?
4. Is the risk/benefit ratio ethically acceptable?