Virtual Worlds, the IRB and a User's Bill of Rights

Aims. This paper discusses the methodological challenges of using the 3D social virtual world Second Life for research and offers some solutions on a range of research issues including research ethics committee approval, gaining consent, recruitment of sample, data collection and engagement with 'inworld culture'. Background. The attraction of social virtual worlds to researchers is their ability to mimic the physical world, as they, are seen as 'places' where people have a feeling of presence (being there) and social presence (being there with others) through the use of a 'customisable' avatar (digital self-representation). Emerging research demonstrating the persuasive nature of avatars on health behaviours through virtual worlds, online games and the 3D web has increased the use of and interest in these areas for delivering health information, advice and support. However, conducting research can be challenging in a 3D world where people are represented as anonymous avatars in an environment unlike any other online media. Data sources. 25 semi-structured interviews were conducted in Second Life from September 2011-June 2012. Implications for nursing. Nurses wishing to undertake research in social virtual worlds should spend time in-world to acquire technical skills and gain an understanding of the culture of the world. Conclusion. Our experience of an interview-based study in virtual worlds indicates that researchers require several virtual world technical skills to create innovative tools to recruit, gain consent and collect data and an understanding of in-world culture, language and social norms to increase the chances of successful research.

Human Rights jurisprudence is always about human enterprises in real world. This conventional attitude of human rights, at present, ignores the reality of human interactions in cyberspaces of Massively Multi-Player Online Role Playing Games (MMORPGs) where real life is super-dimensional within the harbor of reality and materially vigilant human simulation through digital selves (avatars). Human being, the users, is often found displaced in MMORPGs depriving rights to properties, time, money, skill and persistence into such digital worlds. The rules of MMORPGs (EULAs) are fixed by developers and they do not accommodate universal principles of human rights jurisprudence. State silence, corporate showdowns and State protected End User License Agreements (EULAs) marginalize avatars of MMORPGs who represent human being. Most EULAs do not recognize avatars’ ethical and rational rights to ownership over virtual properties. The legislation of MMORPGs is vested only upon developers. This state of MMORPGs challenges the conventional human rights jurisprudence on the points of principles of equality, accountability, justice and non-discrimination in ascertaining rights to ownership of virtual property. The paper critically evaluates the characters of EULAs which ought to incorporate universal principles of human rights laws. Therefore, this is critically a choral approach to excessive authoritarian tendencies of developers in framing their Austin-motivated, one-sided and feudalistic EULAs which displaces avatars or forces avatars to be displaced in MMORPGs.

Virtual worlds are online three-dimensional worlds that are often constructed to look much like the real world. As more people begin to use these virtual worlds, virtual communities are emerging enabling various social activities and social interactions to be conducted online. Based on a literature review of social movements, virtual communities and virtual worlds, this paper suggests a framework to guide IS research into this new and exciting area.

2008 Requirements Engineering and Law, 2008

This paper addresses policy challenges of complex virtual environments such as virtual worlds, social network sites, and massive multiplayer online games. The complexity of these environments-apparent by the rich user interactions and sophisticated user-generated content that they offer-poses unique challenges for policy management and compliance. These challenges are also impacting the life cycle of the software system that implements the virtual environment. The goal of this paper is to identify and sketch important legal and policy challenges of virtual environments and how they affect stakeholders (i.e., operators, users, and lawmakers). Given the increasing significance of virtual environments, we expect that tackling these challenges will become increasingly important in the future.

2000

After a brief introduction that sets out the overall argument of the paper in summary, the second part of the paper will offer a meta-ethical framework based on the moral theory of Alan Gewirth, necessary for determining what, if any, ought to be the ethics that guide the conduct of people participating in virtual worlds in their roles as designers,

Convergence: The International Journal of Research Into New Media Technologies, 2012

This article analyzes under which conditions ethical relevant avatar harm occurs in virtual worlds. The authors argue that this is most likely to occur when there are some norms of acceptable behavior in a virtual world and when players see avatars as constitutive to their identity. Other than online environments characterized by a 'caveat emptor' approach, Second Life is governed by certain norms of acceptable behavior. While Second Life inhabitants do not see a need for an additional code of ethics for their community, they do have notions of wrong and right behavior. However what exactly constitutes norm violating behavior and ethically relevant avatar harm is often times contested, as the example of online reactions to an avatar upskirt gallery in Second Life illustrate. Players who see their avatars as extensions of themselves are more at risk of ethical harm when a norm violation occurs than players for whom their avatar constitutes an entity distinct from the self.

MELINTAS, 2016

Ethics, and its articulation in moral conducts, is not existed in a vacuum, sterile or fixed human world, but a subject of 'reformulation' or even 'redefinition', as the result of a certain socio-cultural transformation. The development of a global information-digital culture has in a certain intensity affected the perception, understanding and practice of ethics itself as a moral standard. One of the main character of this culture is its 'artificiality', through which human communication and interaction is no longer performed on a 'face-to-face basis, but on a technological mediated one. The consequence is a 'cultural distanciation', in which perception is separated from experience, body is separated from message. Another consequence is the 'transparency' at an ethical level, in which several ethical boundaries are deconstructed: good/bad, proper/ improper. A community ethics is one of today's ethical problem, in which a 'commonality' is no longer constructed based on conventional social bonds, but on more artificial bonds: solitude, rejection, helplessness. Friendship in the digital world is another 'strange' development of moral conduct, in which a great numbers of friends is just an affirmation of one's solitude. As the result, connection-as main pilar in the architecture of our contemporary life-has taken us along a cultural contradiction: it mediates, but at the same time dissociates our cultural experience.

This paper examines ethical issues specific to research into virtual communities. Drawing on an empirical case with online forums of education experts, we identify the following key issues: publicity versus privacy of the community; the definition of human subjects research; participant recruitment; informed consent; and ethical questions associated with observing virtual communities, and with reporting and disseminating research results. We maintain that different research cultures in different countries can present challenges when studying global forums. Acknowledging the ephemeral characteristics of Internet contexts, this paper argues that ethical considerations should be more case-based, instead of relying on one model for all solutions. We suggest that local ethics committees or institutional review boards could, with their expert knowledge of ethics, provide valuable support for researchers operating in the complex and dynamic terrain of Internet research, as well as in fields and research settings where an ethical review is not a standard part of the research process.

Science and Engineering Ethics, 2014

This paper attempts to give an insight into emerging ethical issues due to the increased usage of the Internet in our lives. We discuss three main theoretical approaches relating to the ethics involved in the information technology (IT) era: first, the use of IT as a tool; second, the use of social constructivist methods; and third, the approach of phenomenologists. Certain aspects of ethics and IT have been discussed based on a phenomenological approach and moral development. Further, ethical issues related to social networking sites are discussed. A plausible way to make the virtual world ethically responsive is collective responsibility which proposes that society has the power to influence but not control behavior in the virtual world.

2012

The world we live in is expanding its borders by letting the "virtual" become part of our lives. As new technologies emerge, virtual communication is taking over step by step and more and more virtual features become an important part of our life.

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Journal For Virtual Worlds Research, 2009

As a reader of this issue of JVWR, you should have an interest in virtual worlds as well as some experience with a few, even if an exact definition of what constitutes a virtual world or how to differentiate various types of virtual worlds still proves elusive to you. Popular media outlets as well as academics from multiple disciplinary homes have been rumbling about thetopic for some time now, but virtual world spaces that contain millions of people globally are just now becoming a sustained subject of the studious eye of academic research.

2012

Even as virtual worlds recover from their ride on the ‘hype cycle’, they have become more accessible to the average computer user than ever before. Developments in technologies that support these worlds have enhanced their value for supporting communication, collaboration and experiential learning. However, the educational promise of these worlds continues to be balanced by their limitations. Creating an identity and learning the physical and cultural rules of a virtual world requires an investment of time, money and a certain amount of trust that participation is worth the effort. Most critically, the more open the world, the more likely it is to expose participants to inappropriate content and interactions. On the other hand, virtual worlds are a precursor of the more immersive online environments forecast for the near future; engaging with them now will give educators a head start on supporting the next generation of learners.

This article analyzes the possible models for regulating the use of Internet-based virtual worlds by minors. While virtual worlds introduce a unique experience to their users, there is a strong indication that such use, if left unregulated, may cause harm, especially to minors. This article explains that the dangers associated with virtual worlds are different from those created by other types of media. The various phenomena which may be caused due to the use of virtual worlds and the damages likely to be caused by such phenomena, rest on two assumptions: that minors are especially prone to suffer from such dangers, since the exposure of minors to the experiences offered by virtual worlds is not mitigated by factors such as a more developed sense of reality and responsibility, and, that in the use of virtual worlds there is a greater potential to induce such harms when compared to the use of video games or other Internet applications. The methodology underlying this article is based on a comparative-critical review of the existing literature in the fields relevant to this interdisciplinary realm: technology, psychology, philosophy and law. This article concludes that non-legal regulation is insufficient and puts forth several suggestions for legal regulation. The proposed regulation is based on four principles: Awarenessforcing virtual worlds companies to issue a warning of the possible damages similar to the warnings printed on cigarettes packs; Prevention -operating technological measures to identify minor users and tracking their use length; Help -establishing help centers and posting distress buttons in the virtual world; and Liability -imposing tort liability on virtual worlds companies that fail to implement the proposed changes.