Internet Ethics

Internet Ethics: Oxymoron or Orthodoxy?

An On-line Interactive Course in Internet Ethics

IS THERE A PLACE FOR ETHICS?
--Roger Darlington

"In considering whether there is a place for ethics on the Internet, we need to have understanding of what such a grand word as ‘ethics’ means in this context. I suggest that it means four things:


Acceptance that the Internet is not a value-free zone
This means that the World Wide Web is not the wild wild Web, but instead a place where values in the broadest sense should take a part in shaping content and services. This is a recognition that the Internet is not something apart from civil society, but increasingly a fundamental component of it.


Application of off-line laws to the on-line world
This means that we do not invent a new set of values for the Internet but, for all the practical problems, endeavour to apply the law which we have evolved for the physical space to the world of cyberspace. These laws might cover issues like child pornography, race hate, libel, copyright and consumer protection.


Sensitivity to national and local cultures
This means recognising that, while originally most Internet users were white, male Americans, now the Internet belongs to all. As a pervasively global phenomenon, it cannot be subject to one set of values like a local newspaper or national television station; somehow we have to accommodate a multiplicity of value systems.


Responsiveness to customer or user opinion
This means recognising that users of the Internet – and even non-users – are entitled to have a view on how it works. At the technical level, this is well understood – bodies like the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF), the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) end the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) endeavour to understand and reflect user views. However, at no level do we have similar mechanisms for capturing user opinions on content and access to it.

Now that we have a better understanding of what ethics means in the context of the Internet, we need to address the question: whose responsibility is ethics on the net? The answer is that responsibility should be widely spread."

Exploring Cyberspace: The Internet and Society

"A Blogger's Code of Ethics"

"The huge advances in computers and the Internet during the past 20 years have provided a wide range of new ethical and lifestyle concerns. The educational challenge is to help students carefully consider the legal, moral, technological and philosophical issues in this area and make more informed - and hopefully more responsible - decisions in their academic and professional lives."
--Michael Quinn