COMPUTER ETHICS AS EDUCATION
In addition to representing a pressing business and social concern, computer ethics increasingly was seen as an important area of study. Many universities have added computer ethics to their curricula, a measure that is now required for a computer science department to earn certification by the Computer Accreditation Board. Even elementary and secondary school students were exposed to computer-ethics lessons in the early 2000s. The generation that was raised with powerful computers and the Internet was a prime consideration for those concerned with the ethical use of such technology. According to the Boston Globe, more than half of the 47,000 elementary and middle school students surveyed in 2000 reported that they did not consider computer hacking to be a crime.
To get to these youngsters early, before unethical behavior becomes a habit, the U.S. Department of Justice partnered with the Information Technology Association of America, a technology trade group, to form the Cybercitizen Partnership. The partnership involved a nationwide campaign to build awareness of computer ethics by providing resources to schools and parents. It was hoped that by reaching students of all ages with the need to develop ethical codes of computer use, future disasters stemming from the misuse of tomorrow's even more powerful technologies could be averted.
FURTHER READING:
Bush, Victoria D.; Beverly T. Venable; and Alan J. Bush. "Ethics and Marketing on the Internet: Practitioners' Perceptions of Societal, Industry, and Company Concerns." Journal of Business Ethics. February, 2000.
Forester, Tom, and Perry Morrison. Computer Ethics: Caution-ary Tales and Ethical Dilemmas in Computing. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 1993.
Goldsborough, Reid. "Computers and Ethics." Link-up. January/February, 2000.
Hilton, Timothy. "Information Systems Ethics: A Practitioner Survey." Journal of Business Ethics. December, 2000.
Kreie, Jennifer; and Timothy Paul Cronan. "Making Ethical Decisions." Communications of the Association for Computing Machinery. December, 2000.
Miller, Seumas; and John Weckert. "Privacy, the Workplace, and the Internet." Journal of Business Ethics. December, 2000.
Pierce, Margaret Anne; and John W. Henry. "Judgments About Computer Ethics: Do Individual, Co-worker, and Company Judgments Differ? Do Company Codes Make a Difference." Journal of Business Ethics. December, 2000.
Pliagas, Linda. "Learning IT Right from Wrong." InfoWorld. October 2, 2000.
Schroeder, Daniel. "Virtues and Voices." Network World. December 11, 2000.
Taylor, Paul. "Balancing the Benefits and Dangers." Financial Times. July 7, 1999.
Weinstein, Bob. "Right and Wrong on the Net: In New Frontier, Educators See Need to Teach Ethics to the Young." Boston Globe. January 14, 2001.
User Comments Add a comment…