I need paraphrasing this paper with good grammar and no plagiarism. 

There are many reasons as to why social media websites have been very widely used as research tools. Besides there being many advantages to this method of conducting research, it has brought up many concerns and therefore challenges to certain groups such as the Institutional Review Board. The article looks at the risks and concerns associated with this method of research and write about it in a perspective of the people conducting research; they are basically raising attention on the dangers of writing reports on this type of research such as issues with “privacy, consent and confidentiality.” Besides these explanations are the “ relevant ethics and regulatory issues” associated with these concerns. 

The article focuses on three types of research and writes about each one:

    For observational research the main ethical question is how to define the criteria of a human subject for research. Although there is a hard definition by the federal regulation, this might change from person to person. 

   Interactive research involves the researchers needing to obtain access that is not readily available to the public. This brings up questions about what exactly is consent that gives access to this information. The main ethical question involves the definition of permission to such information trying to be reached. Is a friend request approval on Facebook enough permission for people to access the information? Or a follow on twitter? 

    Lastly, we have survey/interview research which involves consented research online. The main ethical questions involve the accuracy of information collected due to the lack of face-to-face interaction or acquiring parental consent for those under 18 years of age, emphasizing the process on HOW to obtain such consent. Some questions are raised about this because consent could be easily forged by simply checking a box on a website. 

In terms of observational research, the article assumes that people conducting research consider whether their work meets the criteria for “human subject research.” For example, the article states that those conducting research emphasize the numbers, rather than the identification of people. Another assumption is that those conducting research are always considering he risk level of what they are trying to study. An example of this is looking at the number of times somebody uses a work compared to how many people have HIV. 

An assumption on interactive research is that those conducting research give a clear identification of themselves to the subjects.

    An assumption for surveys and interviews is that the researchers provide their information for questions and obtaining actual consent for subjects under 18 years of age. 

   The norms these assumptions reflect, whether from within the tribe of science or from the larger community in which the scientific community is embedded.

As most research is done, there is a norm from the scientific community that scientists are honest in their data and publications. It is something that is expected, rather than a rule (even though it probably is a written rule), because it is considered that everyone is “ethical.”

Scientists are thought to follow all rules, especially in accessing and conducting research on other people’s information from social media. Social media research has been a huge debate, even leading to court hearings on Facebook CEO.