Morality and ethics behind the screen: Young people’s perspectives on digital life

Abstract

While emerging research illuminates how youth engage with digital media, relatively little attention has been given to moral and ethical issues. Drawing on interviews with 61 teens and young adults, we explored the extent to which youth’s approaches to online life include moral or ethical considerations. We report the prevalence of three ways of thinking about use of social networks, massive multiplayer games, Wikipedia, and downloading. We found that individualistic thinking (focusing on consequences for oneself) dominated participants’ thinking; moral thinking (considering known others) was somewhat prevalent; and ethical thinking (acknowledging unknown others and communities) was least prevalent. We explore the targets and triggers of these approaches to online life, discuss ethical lapses observed, and consider theoretical and practical implications.