ICT Ethics as the Moral Standard - Essay Example

Running head: Ethics assessment Customer Inserts His/her Name Customer Inserts Grade Course Customer Inserts Tutor’s Name 24, 01, 2012 Introduction With the emergence of new technologies, organizations in this 21st century continue to invest in computer systems. This is because ICT has been effective and more efficient in enhancing employee performance and other electronic operations in various processes. However, the widespread-use of new computer system designs has raised a number of ethical concerns among users allover the world. Freedom of expression regarding intellectual property rights, data protection, accessibility of information, and cultural diversities have been compromised and have ceased to be the basic human rights that has been common to us. Privacy concerns, digital divide, cybercrime as well as other forms of digital security have been regarded as ethical risks emerging from the use of ICT. Violations of these basic rights have directly or indirectly affected human social systems. In this excerpt, discussion will focus on internet censorship as one of the ethical issues that has resulted from the use of ICT, Internet censorship will thus be discussed in the light of KANT, deontology and consequentialism ethical principles. More so alternatives of mitigating these ethical principles will be considered. ICT Ethics ICT ethics refers to the moral standards that have to be observed in defining the best course of action in ICT usage. Communication technology and use of information is inevitable in today’s world. Most of the human operations are becoming increasingly dependent on these two aspects. It is therefore, important that ethical issues regarding ICT be explored and reviewed extensively. Today, our society is connected via the internet. This has enhanced the process of sharing and accessing information. Through the internet citizens in various countries have been empowered given that they are now able access a wider array of digital information. This has made our society to be updated in whatever is happening in all corners of the world. An ethical vacuum has however, been created by problems that the advent of new technologies was never expected to have. This is because ethical developments have not been able to keep up with the fast paced changes in technology (Kumra & Mittal 2002). Internet censorship advocates support the idea of regulating the application of ICT. This is because without such regulation, the resulting consequences can impact the society in a big way. If other communication media such as news ads, learning materials such as books, and television can have authorities censoring whatever information they release to the public, monitoring what is circulating on the internet is also applicable. Pornographic sites, racial hatred speech, and public incites can never be allowed in a society. This is why controlling sites that can spread such information is essential simply because it is difficult to trace persons involved in such acts over the internet (Butt 2009). The ethical issues that are evident in this scenario include Consequentialism, Deontology and KANT. Since Deontology focuses on the rights and duties, it elaborates on human rights as well as the responsibilities of undertaking such rights. Notably, these rights includes the property rights and privacy, on the other hand the expected duties include impartiality, professional responsibility, ethics and confidentiality (Spinello, 2010). Internet censorship means that the right to use ICT information will be limited and hence violating on the property rights. On the other hand privacy rights will be violated in the sense that the ICT information used by the end user will always be checked. Consequantialism is another relevant ethical issue that will arise in this case because it measures the extent of wrongness and rightness of an action. In this case, the rightness is the overall benefits of managing internet content that may be too sensitive for underage viewing. The wrongness can be viewed as the intrusion of private space as well as right to fully use all the provided ICT resources. The third relevant ethical concern in this case is KANT which concerns ethical decision making (Butt, 2009). The KANT approach is based on three ethical theories which include; self respect, universality as well as respect to others. In a way, depending on the intention of the internet censorship, the concept of respect for others is relevant since avoiding explicit content reaching underage is a positive aspect. Self respect in internet censorship can be viewed in two dimensions, one is the respect for self by avoiding derailing content from the internet and the other one is respecting oneself by viewing only useful content. To prevent these occurrences, a strong tradition of internet control is indisputable. It is true that the expansion of the internet as we are witnessing it today was not foreseen, neither were the emerging issues. Internet usage has many technical areas that deserve a considerable attention. Internet service providers are compelled to decide on what to deliver to the users as one way of controlling the information content through filtering systems. This is one way of controlling access of materials that may not be appealing to the community (Jones, 2005). For instance, web pages containing child pornography ought to have a restricted access. Countries like the republic of China some years back imposed strong measures on internet censorship that prevented people from gaining access into its projects. This however, did not prevent cybercriminals from accessing the restricted government sites. The countries Golden Shield Project was hacked into implying that it is quite challenging to prevent accessibility of information stored on online sources (Guillaume, 2009). In 2006, a number of opposition websites in Belarus became inaccessible due to network failures. This meant that the blocking of those sites was beneficial because the information that the media and the opposition might have relayed to the public was politically harmful. Some regarded this action by the government as being extralegal even though nothing transpired after the elections (Deibert, 2008). It is however important to impose such measures especially when the security of the state is about to be compromised. In countries such as Saudi Arabia, political dissent is highly discouraged. To foment such dissent, the government routed all internet traffic via a proxy server that restricts access of websites. All sites must be filtered to make sure that no information that might compromise the religious beliefs of the Saudis is passed on to the public. This is important because the state is sure that the Islamic religion and political regime is under control by the government (Spinello, 2010). . Trust and confidence is paramount when it comes to matters of information made available via the internet. For instance, Geocities’s shares dropped remarkably because of an illegal access to the database of the internet provider’s selling information. In yet another case, the U.S navy illegally accessed McVeigh’s information, which it later used against him in court (Berleur & Duquenoy, 1999). Such inconveniences can only be avoided if proper measures of internet control are put in place. Among other internet crimes, the events outlined above provide enough reasons as to why internet regulation measures should are justified. Internet censorship has also raised some questions especially when it comes to the aspects of human rights violations. Sometimes the public is compelled to inquire about the right to access of information, which is often violated whenever a government decides to censor some sites. Censorship is not democratic in anyway, but it may benefit a section of the society. This is where the conflict of interests comes in. Critics argue that it is one way of violating the privacy of the internet (Kumra &Mittal 2002). For instance, when service providers choose what is to be included or omitted from the internet, are there no chances that there will be biasness? Censorship of systems by governments in various countries is received differently, and is always seen by the public as an element meant to heighten the anti-democratic drifts. In some European countries such as Germany and France, freedom to access information from the internet has no limits. However, this limitless stops when suspected to lead to racial hatred or negotiationism (Butt, 2009). Even though, the executives cannot on its own censor any system without involving the arms of government. In fact, the decision is arrived at in the courtroom and it is the judge who will give directions on what is to be done (Kumal & Mittal, 2002). The recommended approach for internet censorship in light of the three ethical principles is as follows. Since Deontology focuses on human rights and the responsibilities, the government should clearly point out which content to be blocked in order to avoid violation of human rights. It is beyond any reasonable doubt for the government to block explicit content in the internet and thus recommended course of action. More so, according to Consequentialism, the overall good of blocking such content through such measures is sustainable and thus a good measure for the government. The need for self respect, universality and respect for others is also evident in this case if the government blocks explicit content which underage may get access to. This will be respectful for the provisions of the KANT ethical principal. Conclusion This essay has focused on the impacts of internet censorship with many examples from many developed and developing countries. Notably, internet censorship intention varies from one government to another. Some may ethically be acceptable as put forth by consequentialist, the overall good of blocking explicit content from reaching underage children may be sustainable, and as well a form of self respect and respect to others as put forth by KANT ethical principle. Such action does not violate human rights when done with such intention as described by Deontology principle. This is the rationale for the recommended proposal in terms of the three outline ethical principles. References Berleur, J., & Duquenoy, (1999). international Federation For Information Processing: Ethics And The Governance Of The Internet To Promote Discussion Inside The IFIP National Societies. Retrieved on 23/10/2012 from: http://www.info.fundp.ac.be/~jbl/IFIP/Ethics_and_Internet_Governance.pdfI Deibert, R. (2008). Access denied. New York, NY: MIT Press. Guillaume, L. (2009). Fighting Cybercrime: Technical, Juridical And Ethical Challenges. Retrieved on 23/10/2012 from: http://www.fortiguard.com/sites/default/files/VB2009_Fighting_Cybercrime_- _Technical,Juridical_and_Ethical_Challenges.pdf Jones, G. (2005). CyberSociety. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications Kumra, I., & Mittal, K. (2002). Ethical Issues in Cyberage. Delhi Business Review, 3(1). Retrieved on 23/10/2012 from: http://www.delhibusinessreview.org/v_3n1/dbrv3n1c.pdf Butt, M. (2009). should governments censor material on the World Wide Web? Retrieved on 24/01/2012 from: http://www.idebate.org/debatabase/topic_details.php?topicID=83 Spinello, R. (2010). Cyberethics: Morality and Law in Cyberspace. London: Jones and Barnett learning. Read More