Ethical Use

As parents and mentors, we want to help our youth become responsible, full digital citizens. Our friends at Cable in the Classroom have identified three key areas of competency for digital citizenship:

Safety & Security:

Understanding the risks that we face from others as well as from our own conduct, and the dangers posed by applications like viruses and phishing.

Digital Literacy:

Learning how to find, sort, manage, evaluate and create information in digital forms. These literacy skills build on but are somewhat different from the traditional literacy of reading and writing.

Ethics & Community:

Becoming aware of and practicing appropriate and ethical behaviors in a variety of digital environments. This area includes shaping your digital reputation and being a responsible citizen of the communities in which you participate, from social networks, to games, to neighborhood civic forums.

Responsible, resilient digital citizens know to operate under the same good judgement online that they use in their offline lives. The Web may feel like a free-for-all, but online resources cost money and time to create and our treatment of other digital citizens matters.

Parents can help tweens and teens understand the ethical dilemmas that flourish in digital environments (plagiarism, pirating, hacking, impersonating other users, etc.). Some of these important matters to discuss are:

• Ownership:Free vs. fee-based access
  Many online resources (podcasts, blogs, and many online games) are intended to be free. Other resources, like music and movies are available for a fee. Students should understand that copyright and creativity go hand-in-hand and resources are only available because someone pays for them; illegal download (piracy) is stealing. It not only threatens you personal record but also puts your favorite resources at risk of disappearing.
• References and Acknowledgment: Mine vs. Theirs
  Even when resources are free, referencing another’s ideas or work requires appropriate citation. Youth must learn to distinguish between borrowing models and borrowing paragraphs (for example) and the importance of representing their work accurately and fairly. This protects them within the bounds of school policy and the law, but more importantly, it keeps their personal integrity in tact and they are reliable and honest in the eyes of their peers, teachers, and parents.
• Respect Other Digital Citizens.
  How we treat other citizens online affects how we feel about ourselves and the world around us. Students who harass, abuse, or otherwise mistreat people (harassment/bullying) or property (hacking, piracy)
  Up to 35% of students are victims of cyberbullying.[1]One in ten (10%) teachers reports being cyberbullied by students or other staff members and nearly two-third of those were not aware of any cyberbullying policy at their school.[2]
• Become an Ethical Digital Citizen
  Students and staff must learn to function as ethically in their online world as they do in their offline world. To apply ethics to the digital world, we should: 
  1. Abide by terms of use.
  2. Avoid piracy or stealing of any kind.
  3. Respect other citizens.
  4. Accurately represent authorship.
  5. Acknowledge when we use ideas taken from another source.

Have a Conversation

As you discuss these issues, gauge your child’s understanding by asking the following questions:

• What makes a good citizen? What makes a good digital citizen?
• How do we legally download movies, TV shows, and music? How do you recognize legitimate online businesses where the goods sold are not pirated?
• How and where do you report cyberbullying or other concerns?
• Do you feel comfortable reporting to someone at school (faculty or staff)?

RELATED ISSUES

The following articles give further information on topics related to the Ethical Use of Connected Technology.

Cheating & Technology
Copyright Law Online: Protection and Violation
Cyberbullying
Cyberethics: Digital Citizenship 101
Dating Violence: Using Technology to Prevent & Detect
Downloading Music/Videos Legally
Drug and Alcohol Abuse: Using Technology to Prevent & Detect
High-Risk Sexual Activity: Using Technology to Prevent & Detect
Mobile Phones
Pornography
Sexting
Sexual Violence: Using Technology to Prevent & Detect
Social Networking
Youth Violence: Using Technology to Prevent and Detect

RESOURCES AND LINKS

* Good citizenship:Bully Bust
* Piracy/Illegal Downloading:Internet Safety

WORKS CITED

1. Hinduja, S. & Patchin, J. W. (2009). Bullying Beyond the Schoolyard:
Preventing and Responding to Cyberbullying. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications (Corwin Press). ISBN: 1412966892.

2.”Cyberbullying ‘affects 1 in 10 teachers’” Retrieved 2 February 2011 at http://www.comparemeaphone.com/guardian-unlimited-tech-guide/cyberbullying-affects-1-in-10-teachers.html