July 27, 2008
TECHNOS QUARTERLY Spring 2000 Vol. 9 No. 1
Colloquium:
Internet Ethics
by Cindy Emmans
Ignoring the issue of ethical use of the Internet won't make it go away. By devising and implementing acceptable use policies, schools and libraries — and parents — can deal with the situation before it becomes a problem.
The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (c)1980 defines ethics as a “set of moral principles or values,” with an additional comment attributed to the Christian Science Monitor that, “all citizens share in the blame for lax municipal ethics.” Ethics, municipal or otherwise, are built upon existing mores, resulting from the ideas and actions of a society. Ethics do not precede the situation a society finds itself in; they are a reaction to the situation.
Agrarian, Industrial, Information & Economic Ethics
Ethics are ever changing and reflect the current state of the society they
seek to help regulate. The ethics of an agrarian society that focused on family
and religion changed considerably when in the early 1900s the Industrial Revolution
was ushered in and we became more concerned with commerce, wealth building,
and innovations. Gone were the quaint ethics that had guided past generations,
replaced with ethics, both good and bad, that more accurately reflected the
needs of the expanding economy. Greed, unfair labor practices, immoral uses
of child labor — all became a part of the ethic of business.
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WEB SITES
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Acceptable Use Policies (AUPs) http://www.cwu.edu/~terilee/aup.html
http://library.usm.maine.edu/aup.html
http://hinet1.hasd.k12.pa.us/aup.shtml
http://www.dms.provo.k12.ut.us Site provides the AUP used by Dixon Middle School in Provo, Utah http://www.ala.org/work/ |
More Help Coaching Kids for the Internet: A Guide for Librarians, Teachers, and Parents, Internet Workshop Series No. 9 (Library Solutions Institute and Press, December 1999), by Gail Junion-Metz. This wonderful resource is targeted to the adult Internet learner and guide/teacher/librarian, as well as university students of education. It's a terrific how-to that provides planning and organizational ideas, navigational techniques, classroom integration of online subject matter, and ethical considerations, including Acceptable Use Policies. The book includes a disk with more than 700 links to Internet resources that are updated on the author's Web site. Order online ($60) at www.library-solutions.com. Ms. Junion-Metz is “Surf For” columnist for School Library Journal magazine and author of K-12 Resources on the Internet. |
Now we have the Information Age, and the poster child for this era is the Internet. It seems to be all things to all people and thus can't be quantified or subjected to easy ethical equations. It is new territory, and the uncertainty of ethics on the Internet is far-reaching. The Internet is for the most part unmanaged, unedited, unsupervised; anyone can post information on the Internet for all to see. Opinions can parade as hard facts; people with far-flung ideas can easily find an audience; photos, jokes, and drawings of any ilk can be published; access is easy to obtain.
In the United States, people have very strong opinions about basic rights such as free speech. But should this right allow anyone to post anything on the Internet? Should this right allow anyone to have access to all Internet information, in all situations? Library boards across the country are being called to task regarding Internet policies thought to restrict free speech. The results of these discussions are helping to shape a set of ethics that can be applied to Internet use.
Libraries are wonderful places, but often funds are limited and resources have to be carefully allocated. Even in libraries with interlibrary loan services and Internet connections, patrons are limited to a finite set of resources. Patrons are also controlled, in effect, by library boards, librarians, financial officers, and the other library users, all of whom can have input toward what will or will not be available in the library.
The
Internet, on the other hand, knows no physical boundaries and also no moral
or ethical boundaries. The only real boundary focuses on the gap between the
rich and poor, the rich having unlimited access at schools and at home, while
the poor have to rely on free access at schools or libraries. Is that ethical?
Is access to the Internet a right guaranteed to all, or only given to those
who succeed — as in the Industrial Revolution, when materials goods were
affordable only by the successful?
Those who do succeed — in terms of gaining access — have the ability to post any kind of data, even if it's false, inflammatory, pornographic, or libelous. For the most part, there are no editors reviewing materials for the Internet; no one is controlling the kind or quality of information that can be made available on the Internet. Adults have the advantage of experience to help them judge information and make decisions about what is useful to them and what is not. However, many young people, even very savvy young people, do not have the benefit of experience and are often ill equipped to judge information for accuracy, especially if it's presented in an appealing manner. A set of ethics needs to evolve, to guide Internet use for everyone.
Access: Both a Right and a Responsibility
Worse for our youth than the false or misleading information on the Internet
is the fact that it is rife with lewd pictures and hard-core pornography,
easily available with a few clicks of a mouse. Innocent searches can result
in troubling images on the screen. While this material could be considered
perfectly acceptable for adults to view if they so choose, limiting access
is usually appropriate for young people. We have local, state, and federal
laws governing access to pornography, but since the Internet can usually be
accessed anonymously, these laws cannot be enforced. A minor walking into
a store to try to buy pornography can be stopped; a minor logging onto the
Internet can easily pose as an adult and no one is the wiser.
What to do? How can we allow young people to have access to lots of information, not violate their right to free speech, teach them ways to judge information, and still protect them from information or images deemed inappropriate for their age?
As with many issues that affect youth, schools bear the brunt of managing the problem. Schools must protect students without stifling their creativity and without putting too much control on what they can view. There are many ways to accomplish this. Policies must be created and put into place which clearly state the rules governing computer use, with clear consequences for violations. Parents must be included in the forming of such policies, and they must be held responsible along with their students in adherence to these policies. Software can be installed that filters unwanted sites, participation in chat rooms can be forbidden, and computers can be programmed to keep a record of use. If evidence of inappropriate computer use comes to light, the records can be searched to determine who violated policies or stepped out of bounds.
It's easy to see that this works only for those whose access to the Internet is via the school; it does nothing for those who have unmonitored access at home. So while schools perhaps have the greater responsibility, they also have to rely on parents, who often may have no knowledge of what their children are doing on the computer and even less information on what to do about issues of control. As with most ethical problems, parents must have a certain faith in their children. But merely hoping that the foundations they have been provided by the home, school, or church will guide their children in what they do on the Internet may not be enough. It has to be combined with serious interventions, honest discussions, and a knowledge that there may be some experimentation with “taboo” areas of the Internet, but that this will be brief and infrequent.
No software and no policy will be foolproof; students can always find ways to circumvent rules. In addition to regulations and controls, students must be made aware of the responsibilities that come with privilege. And access to the Internet is indeed a privilege.
Illustration by Mike Cagle.
Cindy
Emmans is a professor of education at Central Washington University in Ellensburg,
teaching undergraduate and graduate level technology courses. She also does
curriculum development for CNN Turner Learning and teaches master's level
courses via the Internet for the University of Maryland's University College.
Email her at: emmansc@cwu.edu.