Ethics - fieldwork with children

Read before any fieldwork with children.

Two cards per A4, double-sided. Front carries the ten-dimension brief, back carries the QR code.

One card per student or pair. Students scan to open the full persona page on their phone.

Use Handouts H1–H9 from the Empathy with a Lens Facilitator Kit to run the 3.5-hour session.

Before you interview

Assent and consent. Parents/guardians consent in writing; children give assent in age-appropriate language at the start of every session, and may withdraw at any moment — including silently. Watch for non-verbal withdrawal.
GDPR-K / COPPA / local equivalents. Under-13 data needs verifiable parental consent and minimised collection. Don't collect identifiers you don't strictly need. No long-term retention without explicit purpose.
Recording. Audio/video only with separate, specific consent. Default off. Always offer parents a copy. Default destruction date 90 days unless agreed otherwise in writing.
Setting. Public-private space (parent within earshot, not in shot). Never alone with a child without two-deep supervision.
Compensation. Token, not transactional. Avoid material incentives that pressure participation.

Stop signals. "Tired", "Bored", silence longer than 30 seconds, or looking for the parent — all are stops. The child's "no" is final, even non-verbal.
Mandatory reporting. If a disclosure suggests harm, follow the local safeguarding pathway. Brief your team on the protocol before fieldwork.
Power asymmetry. You are big, they are small, and there is a recording. Sit at their height. Use their words. Never correct.
Debrief. Always end with "what was the best bit, what was the worst bit?" — both as data and as closure.
Withdraw. Participants can withdraw their data up to 30 days post-session, no questions asked. Build the deletion path before fieldwork begins.

Scan to bring up this ethics card during a session.
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