Research behind a webcam: an exploration of virtual interviewing with children and young people.

Background Societal use of digital technology rapidly increased during the global Coronavirus disease 2019 pandemic. Face-to-face services converted to online provision, where possible. This affected many clinical academics undertaking research projects. Aim This paper explores conducting online research interviews with children and young people about sensitive topics. Discussion Digital inclusion, ethical issues surrounding safety, support and consent are considered, along with choice of data collection tools. A discussion on physical proximity in qualitative interviews with this population, and its role in data quality, is presented. Benefits in the context of researcher personal experience are also investigated. Disadvantages of online interviews are acknowledged and ways to mitigate these discussed. Conclusion Many researchers had to adapt data collection methods during the pandemic. Our experiences of conducting virtual interviews during this time are discussed. Advantages for researcher include cost-effectiveness, time efficiency and greater geographical reach of participants. However, children and young people’s perspectives are unknown. Specific ethical issues using this method with children and young people need careful consideration Implications for practice More research is required on undertaking virtual interviews from the perspectives of children and young people as participants. Acquisition of virtual consent and assent should be investigated to standardised good research practices.