This study is about how teenagers moderate their own online communities on apps like Discord, Twitch, and Reddit. We also want to know more about what teenagers think about when it comes to internet safety. Anyone who is 13-17 years old and currently a moderator of a Discord server that has at least 1,000 members can participate. We are also interviewing people who currently mentor teen mods that match that description. Participating in the study means doing a 30-60 minute interview where one of the researchers will ask you questions about your experiences moderating. Feel free to ask any questions to the lead researcher, Jina Yoon, at any time.
We are researchers from the University of Washington and Stanford University who have been studying how users moderate groups on apps like Facebook, Reddit, Discord, and Twitch for several years. We've interviewed a lot of adults about what they do as moderators, but we would also like to know what teenagers do as moderators because a lot of the moderators on these apps are not adults yet.
The format of the research study is a 30-60 minute interview, usually done through a Discord voice call. Before starting the interview, the researcher will ask you in a direct message to read the teen assent form if you are between the ages of 13-17, or the mentor consent form if you are 18 years or older. You will be asked to type "I agree/consent to participate in this study." This is basically our way of getting your permission and signature.
After you agree to participate, the researcher will ask you to schedule a 60 minute time slot for the interview at a later time and date. If you are uncomfortable with doing a voice call for the interview, we can do the interview by text by chatting over direct messages instead. The interview audio will be recorded so that we can save what you said, but once we convert the recording to text and complete the study, we will delete the audio file.
The interview questions will be about things like why you wanted to become a moderator, when you started moderating, and how you moderate your communities. We will ask you mostly about your Discord servers, but we might also ask you about experiences on other apps if you have any. We'll also ask you about what you wish other people knew about Discord and moderation, as well as your thoughts about online safety.
There is no risk of physical harm to you in this research study because it is an online interview. It's possible that we might ask some questions that could remind you of bad experiences on social media in the past, but you don't have to talk about those experiences if you don't want to. You can skip any questions you want, and you can ask the researcher questions at any time. If you ever feel uncomfortable about tis study, you should feel fere to tell your parents or guardians, or the researcher.
You will receive a $15 USD digital gift card code for being in this study. Although the results of this study might not benefit you directly, we hope that the results of this study will help people and companies understand the experiences of teenagers who are moderators on this app better so that the app can be improved.
If you are in the US, the default store for the gift card will be Amazon.com, and you will receive the code in 1-2 weeks. You can also choose a different store from the Tango gift card catalog if you want to. If you choose a store from that website, it can take much longer (about 4-8 weeks). If you are not in the US, you have to choose a store from the Tango gift card catalog. It will take about 4-8 weeks to get your gift code because we are required to fill out more paperwork for international participants.
In addition to this page being hosted on an official University of Washington website domain, you can also email Jina Yoon at jinayoon@cs.uw.edu with any questions, concerns, or feedback, and she will do her best to respond to you within 1-2 days.
We take extra care to protect the privacy of our participants. Any personally identifiable information such as names or usernames will be removed from all data. The interview transcripts will be saved and analyzed for any themes, trends, or ideas. The anonymized data will be used for an academic publication in a research conference or journal within the next year.
Primary researcher to contact, leading this project. Interviews and recruits most of the participants.
Email: jinayoon@cs.uw.edu
Reddit: jina_UWCSE
Discord: ahrisoo#7923
Research collaborator, interviews some participants. Contact info can be found in the teen assent form or the mentor consent form PDFs.
Research advisor. Contact info can be found in the teen assent form or the mentor consent form PDFs.
