Digital child and youth research is often conducted in schools involving minors. Corresponding research designs raise two related sets of problems: Ethical issues with regard to working with vulnerable groups like children and adolescents and access to these groups. The latter pertains to the concept of gatekeeping which is an ethical issue in and of itself if certain groups or areas of research are systematically excluded from empirical research and, consequently, from the resulting benefits. Thus, our study examines how perceived ethical challenges influence gatekeepers’ decisions to grant or deny access to investigate a potentially problematic topic: pupils’ group communication. We addressed this research question empirically via semi-structured in-depth interviews with eight educational gatekeepers in Germany inquiring their attitudes on research in schools in general and on the specific topic of pupils’ group communication via instant messaging as an exemplar of digital child and youth research. Approaching the question from two perspectives (procedural ethics and ethics in practice), we identified hierarchical power structures within multiple levels of gatekeeping and revealed rationales to deny access based on ethical considerations with regard to the given scenario of pupils’ group communication.

中文翻译：

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把关的伦理：保护访问如何影响数字儿童和青少年研究

数字儿童和青少年研究通常在涉及未成年人的学校进行。相应的研究设计提出了两组相关的问题：与儿童和青少年等弱势群体合作以及接触这些群体的伦理问题。后者与把关的概念有关，如果某些群体或研究领域被系统地排除在实证研究之外，并因此排除在由此产生的利益之外，这本身就是一个伦理问题。因此，我们的研究考察了感知到的道德挑战如何影响看门人决定授予或拒绝访问以调查一个潜在的问题主题：学生的团体交流。我们通过对德国八位教育看门人的半结构化深度访谈来经验性地解决了这个研究问题，询问他们对学校研究的态度以及学生通过即时消息进行的群体交流的具体主题，作为数字儿童和青少年的典范研究。从两个角度（程序伦理和实践中的伦理）处理这个问题，我们确定了多级把关内的等级权力结构，并揭示了基于伦理考虑拒绝访问的理由，这些理由与学生群体交流的给定场景有关。