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Essay on The Internet: Ethics and Legalities
Ethics is tied to any behaviour that has consequences for others. Using the Internet is communications behaviour. To put this behaviour into perspective, it must be understood how Internet users themselves view the situation, that is, the problems affecting them as Internet users.Several types of Internet users can be distinguished and placed in categories by country, organization, profession, or group. Within the five countries studied, the categories of Internet users were designated under the following headings:
- Governmental institutions or agencies (information ministries, regulatory bodies);
- University institutions (communications and computer science departments, schools of journalism and multimedia studies, research centres);
- Nongovernmental organizations (NGOS) and associations (women’s groups, etc.);
- The media (print media, radio, television);
- Private, local, or international companies (agricultural, industrial, trade, information technology sectors); and
- Individuals (students, the person on the street).
The users in each of these categories lived in particular situations or contexts that the analysis of the data brought into focus. Specifically, these users could be distinguished by the degrees to which they recognized that the establishment, acceptance, use, or integration of the Internet causes problems; these problems were identified and delineated by means of the interview questionnaire.( Lilliston, Ben (2005))
These same users were also distinguished by the degrees to which they attempted to act (formally or informally, through the policies of their organizations or institutions, or through individual initiatives) to resolve the problems caused by the cycle of establishment, acceptance, use, and integration of the Internet.
Based on these considerations, we were able to draw up a typology to describe the behaviour of Internet users in response to certain ethical issues. Among other things, the goal of the research was to characterize these users by their ethical attitudes toward issues raised by the Internet. Clevenger, Ty (2005))....................
