ABSTRACT
The complexity of the ethical considerations which shape a research project is also influenced by the variety in national and institutional practices and guidelines. As the latest set of guidelines from the association of Internet Researchers suggest, there is no single set of recommendations for ethical research that can be prescribed universally to cover each and every research project. The governmental regulations, institutional ethics codes and protocols, and subject-specific guidelines for good practice have all been developed to account for research that takes place primarily in offline contexts. The terms and conditions which govern the membership and interactions for specific social media sites provide a further set of regulations which must be considered in the research design. The ethical responsibilities entailed by the researcher's relationship to the participants begin with the overriding need to respect the human right to autonomy. The researcher's relationship to the participants in their project can change over time.
