Another topic I have researched for my literature review has to do with college students’ perceptions of Internet ethics. I found two articles that relate to this topic. Both studies were conducted in countries other than the United States (one in Malaysia and one in the United Kingdom), but they seem to have found data that I expect would be similar if the studies had been done in the United States. It appears that little research has been done on this specific topic in this country, as I was unable to find resources from the U.S.
The first article, “Exploring the relationship between Internet ethics in university students and the big five model of personality,” was published in the journal Computers & Education in 2009. The study was conducted at a public university in Malaysia, and it looked at the affects of personality traits on unethical behavior involving the Internet among students. The article claims that students are not educated about “Cyberethics” and are unaware of the possible consequences that come from using the Internet for questionable or illegal purposes. Also, the fact that many students feel that they are invisible or anonymous on the Web can lead them to do things that they would not do if they knew they were being monitored. The categories of unethical behavior used in the article included: fraudulence, plagiarism, falsification, delinquency, and unauthorized help. The most frequent unethical activity done by the students surveyed was using the Internet for purposes not related to education during lectures or while in computer labs. Many students also admitted to copying and pasting information off the Internet and not citing it.
The other article I found that relates to this topic is called “Generation Y Attitudes Towards E-ethics and Internet-related Misbehaviours.” It was published in the Journal of Business Ethics in 2004. The article defines Generation Y as people born between 1977 and 1993, which includes most current college students. The research explored how undergraduate students feel about various types of unethical Internet activity, such as downloading music/movies without paying, engaging in online gambling, and hacking into private databases. The study found that students’ ethical attitudes toward the Internet were based on their perception that their identity online is a secret and that their misdeeds will not be detected. Therefore, these students did not view activities like piracy as being unethical.
These articles relate to my topic, because they expose the types of unethical activities college students participate in when using the Internet. Often, these activities are done in computer labs, because students feel that since they are surrounded by others, they will not get caught. It is interesting that “Cyberethics” are considered to be in a different category than ethics in the physical world. Students especially seem to view the Internet as a place where they can do anything they want.
