| Students were presented with a questionnaire containing 16 hypothetical scenarios describing ethical dilemmas related to computer and information ethics, and were asked to respond to 23 questions about these 16 scenarios. The study also examined if students made any distinction between computer and non-computer ethical issues that are similar. Students' views about these issued were analyzed according to principled ethics for both boys and girls separately to find out if there were any differences between the boys' and the girls' responses.; Major finding of this research can be summarized in five points. First, the combined average percentage of boys and girls who followed principled ethics was 76.94%, and the number of girls choosing answers in agreement with principled ethics was generally about 10% higher than that of boys. Second, several students knew what is right and what is wrong but were ready to do the wrong if it had benefit to them, and if they knew they were not going to be caught. Third, the percentage of students who answered 90% or more according to principled ethics reached 32.7% (27.7% for boys and 39.1% for girls). Fourth, 67.3% of the students who participated in this study departed from principled ethics in the area of making unauthorized free calls, 53.1% in the area of using students' homepage to insult teachers, 47.8% in the area of copying software without permission, 41.8% in the area of copying books without permission, 38% in the area of copying songs from the Internet without permission and offering them for sale, 25.8% in the area of computer fraud, and 18.7% in the area of hacking for fun without causing any damage and without sharing any information with others. Fifth, students made a distinction between computer and non-computer ethics in three areas. (Abstract shortened by UMI.)... |
