The aim of this article is to show how research practices may simultaneously follow principles of children's citizenship rights to participation and principles of protection and support when children exposed to violence are informants. The article focuses upon organisation of interview processes and interactions between adult researchers and child informants in interview encounters. We point to a number of ways in which one may negotiate the tensions between, on the one hand, victimised children's vulnerability and dependence upon adults for protection and support, and on the other these children's agency and rights to participation.