Terms and Conditions
Research Project: Cybersouls is an online project. It is designed to develop the faith of young people through their online interaction with Faithfriends. Cybersouls is a term given to those who want to initiate their journey of faith online while Faithfriends, primarily authorised by the Jesus Youth movement, would accompany Cybersouls on their journey. Here, either you are a Cybersoul or a Faithfriend.
The project is being initiated in conjunction with the Jesus Youth movement, while the research is conducted in the Mater Dei Institute of Education (MDI), a college of Dublin City University (DCU). Fr Sony Sebastian, CMI, a research student of the Institute, is the principal investigator.
Freedom to Participate: As a Cybersoul or Faithfriend if you are over 18 years and would like to participate in the project you are invited to take part in the research. The primary aim of the research is to find out if the Internet can be used to develop and deepen the faith of young people. Your participation in this research is voluntary and you will not be under any pressure to initiate contact, continue or exit the survey at any stage of the project.
Data Collection: As Cybersouls or Faithfriends your contracted and supervised interaction will be the main activity under consideration. Online discussions may be initiated between you as Cybersouls and Faithfriends, based on any Catholic topic prepared by Jesus Youth. Your textual interaction on the Internet will be the main material under review. Also consideration will be given to your use of other creative ways of online interaction using pictures, videos and other literary tools. In addition, multiple choice questionnaires may be used on the web pages to get feedback from you. The primary investigator will have access to the data. Also Jesus Youth may be allowed to use the data for academic and training purposes.
Anonymity and Security: The research does not require your identity to be revealed to anybody else involved in the project. A consent form to be completed by you will be kept confidential by the main researcher. The online pages of your interaction will be password protected. Also the information securely obtained during your online interaction will be used only for research purposes.
Potential Risks: Since the two main parties involved in the project are voluntarily taking part in the research, it is your responsibility to ensure that: (a) mutual respect; (b) dignity, decorum and an atmosphere of faith development and education; (c) the teachings and values of the Catholic Church etc. are upheld. Making use of this online interaction for any purposes other than that of faith development of a Cybersoul will not be permitted. While, the use of obscene language or other forms of disrespect is not anticipated, appropriate action will be taken against people responsible for such transgressions. For this project your interaction is to be confined to an online exchange. Any personal relationship between you, as Cybersouls and Faithfriends, is outside the remit of this project.
Benefits: As participants in the research, you can benefit from using the online records to review your own language, your ways of articulation online and patterns of interaction. You may be able to assess your ability to talk about your own faith. At a broader level, you are contributing to academic research in order to learn how cyberspace can facilitate the faith development of young people.
Destruction of the Data: The data acquired during this research will be preserved for a year after the time stipulated for a particular topic has elapsed.
Contact: You can contact the researcher at the following address: Fr Sony Sebastian CMI, Mater Dei Institute of Education, Clonliffe Road, Dublin 3, Ireland. E-mail: sony.sebastian3@materdei.dcu.ie or spalathra@gmail.com. If you wish to report any incident or concern to an independent outsider, you can contact: Mr Manoj Sunny, 6 Thadikaran Centre, Palarivattom, Cochin, Kerala, India, e-mail: manojsunny@gmail.com, the Executive Director of Jesus Youth.
