Ethical Dilemma of Gaining Adult Gatekeepers’ Consent in Research with Children: Experiences from Qualitative Fieldwork in Nigeria

Informed consent is a key ethical requirement in children’s rights research with children and young people. However, the process of obtaining consent is often more complex than institutional ethical guidelines suggest. In practice, many negotiations occur which require constant attention to the safeguarding of children’s rights. Navigating consent within institutional contexts can be a dilemma, especially when the research involves institutions that have an unestablished or multi-layered chain of command to gain access to child participants. The Nigeria Data Protection Act 2023 states that a child’s consent is only viable when the consent of a parent or legal guardian has also been received. In this way parents, carers, and facilitators serve as adult gatekeepers to mediate access to child participants complicating the process of getting informed consent.

This presentation examines the intricate negotiations surrounding consent from a study designed to explore children’s participation in public decision-making. Proposed participants were from the National Children’s Parliament in Nigeria, a platform facilitated by the Federal Ministry of Women Affairs to enhance child participation. While this space has been in existence for over 20 years, there has been little research carried out to explore children’s participation and even less public knowledge of activities in the parliament. In exploring these negotiations, this presentation elucidates how the layered institutional landscapes in Nigeria impact the autonomy and rights of child participants, challenging researchers to continually reassess ethical practices in unexplored spaces.