Cyberbullying in IT: Ethical Implications and Solutions

IFSM 3046382 Ethics in Information Technology (2242) Paper A: Application of a decision-making framework to an IT-related ethical issue January 23, 2024

Current IT-Related Ethical Issue The internet is one of the greatest inventions in modern times with millions of devices that keep us connected all day and night. When people post personal details on social media or enter them into a website, even if they delete their account, their information is still stored online. With this information easily accessible, it is plain to see how this knowledge can be abused. Cyberbullying is a relatively new problem that takes many different forms. The act of cyberbullying is generally defined as “sending, posting, or sharing negative, harmful, false, or mean content about someone else” (Hellicar, 2022). This type of bullying has been rising in occurrence with the development of communicative technology such as mobile phones and laptops. According to Nixon’s “Current Perspectives: The Impact of Cyberbullying on Adolescent Health” (2014), nearly half of the children surveyed said they had experienced some form of cyberbullying in their lifetime (p 143). Men are more likely to be victimized by cyberbullying than women (Nixon 2014). Cyberbullying is drastically increasing because it is easy to hide behind anonymity. Laws are being drafted every day to protect young people and prosecute offenders but these proposed policies concerning cyberbullying are not easily written. Questions concerning who is ultimately responsible for a child bullying someone online are up for debate. While most believe that the child should be held accountable for their actions, many say that parents should be punished for not taking proper responsibility to monitor their child’s online behaviors. The anonymity of cyberbullying also presents challenges with legal regulations because identifying the aggressor can be time consuming and costly.

Problem Statement Children and teenagers are the most victimized by cyberbullying. The lack of privacy, or the lack of understanding how online privacy works, is one of the downfalls of social media sites. When children sign up for these sites, they enter all their personal information without thinking about the consequences. If the site that this child has shared their information on is compromised, the child’s safety is in jeopardy. A cyberbully can use this data to find out where the person lives, their age, their phone number and email address, and may even have access to passwords (Gohal, et al, 2023). Analyzing the Problem We can use Kidder’s nine step approach to address this issue. The first step in confronting this issue is finding the root cause of the abuse and how it started. Once the origin of the problem is found, it must be determined who initiated the conversation that resulted in the cyberbullying incident. Learning who initiated the contact will determine how the situation is handled. Impact of the Decision The simplest way to keep yourself safe from this type of harassment is to not post personal information online. Websites can sell your data, making it available to anyone who is willing to pay. Keeping all social media profiles set to private and avoiding sharing confidential information online can prevent the breach of your data.

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Ethical Theory This type of situation is governed by deontological ethics. Deontological ethics utilize a set of standards to decide upon an action’s morality. According to this theory, cyberbullying is clearly unethical because it goes against actions that are deemed morally respectable. References Gohal, G., Alqassim, A., Eltyeb, E. et al. Prevalence and related risks of cyberbullying and its effects on adolescent. BMC Psychiatry 23, 39 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1186/s12888-023- 04542-0 Hellicar, Lauren . “Effects of Cyberbullying: Support and More.” Www.medicalnewstoday.com, 23 Dec. 2022, www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/effects-of-cyberbullying. Nixon, Charisse. “Current Perspectives: The Impact of Cyberbullying on Adolescent Health.” Adolescent Health, Medicine and Therapeutics, vol. 5, no. 5, 1 Aug. 2014, pp. 143–158, www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4126576/, https://doi.org/10.2147/ahmt.s36456.

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