How can virtual world researchers minimize the
effects of their research on study populations? Messages,
apps, and notifications retrieved by hand-held devices have amalgamated the
real world and virtual world. As the line distinguishing the worlds
fades, Joshua Fairfield, in Avatar Experimentation: Human Subjects Research in Virtual Worlds, offers comprehensive
guidelines for approaching research in virtual worlds. Fairfield advises
researchers to recognize the risk of real harm to a human research subject’s
real world identity, role in the virtual community, real and virtual economic
investments, and virtual reputation. The article first recognizes the
challenges of ethical experimental design in the virtual world and
culminates by recommending helpful approaches to virtual world research.
Fairfield suggests researchers who gather data
through add-ons (automated software enhancers), bots and scrapers (robotic virtual world recording software), or machinima (recordings of virtual worlds)
should adjust their techniques to protect the subject’s privacy and to
eliminate the subject’s liability. The End User License Agreement (EULA) governing a particular virtual world may restrict the use of these types of software or ban their use altogether. To supplement data gathering, a researcher's protocol may require research subjects to engage in data gathering using software governed by EULAs. Research subjects who use these data gathering techniques risk liability for potentially violating EULAs. To preclude this possibility, Fairfield advises that researchers avoid using problematic add-ons, or carefully tailor add-ons to protect privacy by, for example, automatically turning them off at the end of a research session. Additionally, researchers must confirm through EULAs and Terms of Service (TOS) that the virtual world allows their research method. Preventing copyright
infringement may require game-god (virtual world developers) consent to the research method along with the
researcher's attentiveness to potential mid-study EULA changes. Fairfield
cautions researchers who use bots and scrapers to consider statutes including
the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA), which prohibits bots and scrapers
from sidestepping clickthrough EULAs. As Fairfield indicates, the
diminished availability of the fair use defense in virtual worlds emphasizes
the importance of requesting game-god permission to use bots or scrapers. However,
research in some virtual worlds may also require user consent when the user
retains intellectual property rights. Adherence to the rules governing the research of human
subjects is generally monitored by institutional review boards (IRBs). Researchers
would benefit from keeping their IRBs informed by providing names of virtual
world specialists to assist the IRB during study approval and monitoring.
Fairfield continues by proposing virtual research
best practices consistent with the principles of autonomy, beneficence, and
justice while mentioning specific protections for minors. To preserve a subject's autonomy, human research studies must include an informed consent process that both informs the subjects of the
research protocol and provides an opportunity for the research subjects to
decline participation. In contrast, EULAs imposed by game-gods generally
do not allow users to opt-out without banishment from the virtual world.
Fairfield goes on to warn against research methods that compromise a
subject’s privacy or virtual community's stability. Reminding researchers
that privacy in a virtual world is contextual, Fairfield recommends researchers
develop familiarity with their subject’s virtual world prior to experiment
implementation. Although a researcher may not regard an avatar name as
private information, any links the avatar name may have to the real world
identity of the user would ethically necessitate treating the avatar name as
private information. The practicality of this treatment is underscored by
the fact that many users retain the same name throughout many virtual worlds
and develop reputations associated with those names. Fairfield encourages
researchers to comply with rules governing minors by advocating methods of excluding
minors in virtual world research.
Fairfield's insights will undoubtedly offer
researchers a helpful framework for approaching future virtual world research
protocols. The significance of continuing virtual world research cannot
be overstated as evidenced by new research. A recent study demonstrated
the importance of virtual worlds in addressing the psychological and physical
gains of patients through the burgeoning field of telehealthcare. See
J. Morie et al., Virtual Worlds and Avatars as the New Frontier of Telehealthcare, 181 Stud Health Technol Inform. 27 (2012). Another study illustrated that integration of virtual worlds with education at agricultural institutions offers a substantial opportunity for instructors to simulate lessons from the classroom online. See H. Leggette et al., Using Second Life to Educate in Agriculture: A Review of Literature, NACTA Journal, June 2012, at 29. Research
approached without Fairfield's insights risks compromising a subject's rights
and ultimately potential study shutdown. Fairfield's ethical and legal
guidelines are essential for continuing valuable and far-reaching virtual
research studies.
Drafted by Andria Minyard (aminyard@smu.edu),
research assistant to Professor Sarah Tran, and a 2015 Juris Doctor
candidate at SMU Dedman School of Law. She received her B.S. in Biology from the University of Texas, Austin. Prior to law school, Andria worked as a Clinical Research Technician at RCTS Labs, Inc.
