Cyber Ethics in Schools

Children have been taught about ethics in schools for centuries, and now it is past time that they are taught about cyber ethics.  A cyber ethics curriculum should be adopted by all school districts and implemented within all schools every two years beginning in grade three.  Additionally, school leaders can be even more proactive by incorporating the curriculum into every class and particularly during the first week of the course to begin establishing expectations.

So what exactly is cyber ethics?  It is the study of moral, legal, and social issues involving cybertechnology.  It evaluates the social policies and laws that have been created in response to issues generated by the development and use of cybertechnology.  What do you think is the greatest cyber ethic issue in schools today?  Hacking?  Plagiarism?  The unauthorized downloading of games and music is the number one cyber ethics issue in schools.  Misuse of intellectual property, aka copyright violations, is also a great cyber ethics concern in schools. Students tend to "drive recklessly" while using the internet and are seemingly blind to the road signs that are erected along the information highway.  They see the popular song available on a peer-to-peer network, and two seconds later they are downloading it to their hard drive or mobile device.  

Educators are behooved to teach students about cyber ethics by establishing a culture of responsible and appropriate use of cyber technology.  Students must be aware that hiding behind anonymity online is a fallacy since everything done online can be tracked back to the person who is supposed to be anonymous.  The rules that apply to the physical world also apply to the online world and students must govern themselves accordingly.  This must be practiced in the classroom on a daily basis in order to ensure students begin adopting the online practice and stop to think before they link.