The author identifies different type of ethical issues, which include:
Privacy & confidentiality,
Hacking/Spamming,
Property/Copyright,
Netiquette,
Vandalism,
Access,
Accuracy.
Students can break the law by going against the laws on ethical issues. Thus, it is the responsibility of teachers to inform students about the importance of computer ethics. Teachers should be aware of their ethical responsibilities and play role models to assist students to learn by examples.
Part 2 - Reflective Diary - the Internet and Ethical Values
Ethical values in the internet and information technology have become important issues within a business environment, and the rapid development cyber crimes have necessitated the needs to spread the ethical values within the it environment. More importantly, the cyberspace has become very importance in the cotemporary it environment because cyberspace assists people and organizations globally to communicate and transact business without limit. Thus, internet has become a necessary tool of doing business, and despite the importance of cyberspace within a business environment, hacking, spamming, and infringement of intellectual property have become the order of the day. Thus, ethical values are very critical in enhancing sanity in the use of internet since younger generations are the group of people who mostly use cyberspace as means of communication. To enhance ethical values in the internet use, there is a need to integrate computer ethics in youths. Computer ethics should start from schools, and schools need to introduce ethical values in the students' curricula to address the problem of cyber crimes.
The integration of moral values in youths will reduce the cyber crime because youths will be able to understand the impact of cyber crimes on the business and economy as a whole. The spread of moral values in schools will also assist business organizations to implement business ethics in their business models since students are the prospective business leaders.
However, there could still be some constraints in the successful implementation of moral values in schools and society. The constraints could be financial and human, which could...
Typically, there is a cause and direct relationship between technology and social changes. Thus, a society could use technology to deliver ethical goods.
Moral theory also argues that the information technology should be used in a fair manner to enhance transparency of the party involved. The implication of moral theory on ethical decision-making reveals that businesses need to make ethical decisions that will be in the best interest of the society. In the contemporary business environments, businesses are continuously raising funds from the public by selling shares and bonds. To attract fund from the public, business must present ethical financial statements that will assist investors to make effective decision about the company. Typically, unethical business conduct could damage the reputation of a company, which could consequently make shareholders to lose the money invested in a business.
Thus, ethical decision-making and moral value are still very critical in the present modern economy. The United States is one of the countries that reveal the importance of ethics in a business conduct. The U.S. enacted Sarbanes-Oxley (SOX) Act of 2002 to promote the ethical conduct in the business community, and the SOX Act was enacted in reaction to the major corporate scandals that rocked the U.S. business community, which cost investors billion of dollars. Thus, SOX Act was enacted to integrate ethics in business and bring public confidence in the U.S. security markets.
References
Akcay, B. (2008). The Relationship Between technology and Ethics from Society to Schools.
Turkish Online Journal of Distance Education-TOJDE. 9(4), 120-127.
Baum, J.J. (2005). CyberEthics: The New Frontier. TechTrends, 49 (6), 54-55.
Frohmann, B. (2008). Subjectivity and Information Ethics. Journal of the American Society for Information Science and Technology, 59(2):267 -- 277.
Jennings, M.M. (2002).Ethics in Cybercafe. TechFocus.
