Sociolinguistics 10, Exercise 2: recording teenagers without telling them

What is wrong: the Informed consent article says a person must have
sufficient information and understanding before accepting risk. Valid consent
needs disclosure, capacity and voluntariness. Recording people secretly gives
them no disclosure, so they cannot consent. For children the page says parents
or guardians typically give "informed permission" and minors may be asked for
assent, so both would be missing here.

What the page says about waiver: social science research sometimes waives
consent when knowing about the study would change the behaviour being studied
(which is the observer's paradox), subject to ethics committee or IRB review.

Who decides: an ethics committee, not the researcher alone. Whether a secret
recording of minors would be approved is not something the page answers; the
rules differ by jurisdiction and I would not assume it would be. A real
project should follow its institution's ethics process and local law.

Source: Wikipedia, Informed consent (first 100,000 characters); Observer's
paradox.