Researching mental health in a virtual world for teens

Our experience with Teen Second Life login processes suggests that we are probably the first Australians to work in this teen-only environment. That’s quite a unique, unexpected and exciting position to be in. But it also raises some interesting questions and possibilities for research, including:

• how do we frame our research when there are a lack of precedents in this area?
• how does a Second Life-type environment differ from other technologies in terms of how young people use it to construct/augment their identity and relate to others?
• what’s the impact of virtual worlds on life in the real world for young people?
• and what methods do we use to research this, given that environments like Teen Second Life carry with them a different set of constantly evolving tools and restrictions (eg ability to export transcripts of written chats/actions vs movement towards voice chat that doesn’t generate transcripts, ability to conduct in-world surveys and interviews and their merits/issues) as well as what mix we should engender between data collected from real and virtual contexts?

There’s a lot to think through now that the real project action is about to begin.