Protecting Human Subjects in Internet Research

The growth of the Internet as a research venue has led to practical, legal, and ethical problems regarding the protection of human subjects. Among these are difficulty in verifying subjects’ identities, gaining informed consent, and assuring ethically- correct research. The authors summarize the current standards pertaining to the protection of human subjects in online research and present a set of guidelines for dealing ethically, legally, and practically with the issues of privacy and confidentiality, intellectual property, informed consent, and protection from harm. As computer-mediated communications merge and evolve, as the Internet becomes more and more a part of everyday life, and as standards for ethical and lawful online research are instituted, separate consideration of human subject protection issues in online research will become less important.