Young online ethics Ragnar Olsson & Lotta Eek-Karlsson Högskolan i Kalmar

Web the social web ”From an arena for passive content consumption… …to a place for social networking, collaboration and participatory creation” (Dunkels et.al, 2008)

Ethics & morality in the digital arena Does the new way of interaction affect the young peoples view upon ethical and moral issues? Is there a difference between young people’s ethical and moral thoughts concerning the way they interact online and offline?

Focus in the investigation 1700 pupils have answered a digital questionnaire ( year 5 and 8 in compulsary school and year 2 in upper secondary school ), which provided both qualitative and quantitative data. The investigation highlights both positive aspects (encouragement/support)… …and negative aspects (harassment) of online interactions

Access to Internet

Young people communicate by

”Adults seem to think that Internet and mobile phones are negative things, but this is a absolutely new way of living.It takes away a lot of physical contacts but also gives you a lot of freedom, and it also makes it a lot easier to parents to supervise their children.You can keep in touch with your parents if you stay out for a night, you can call the police if there’s a crime being committed, and so on. Beyond that, you can have a much closer contact with your friends and if you need to talk to them they’re not so far away, that’s a positive thing in my eyes”

Harassment

“XX called me “bitch” because I spent some time with her friend. But she has no life and everybody is on my side, so it’s cool.”

Encouragement/support

”If you feel bad, there’s access to mobile phones or Internet so you can get hold of the closest mates.” ”People ask all the time how I feel and care very much and then they tell me how much they like me and so on” ”A great deal of the communication between me and my friends takes place by telephone or Internet and we mostly discuss our problems and support each other by these media”

Two discourses The Harassers The Supporters

It’s more ok to harass somebody online than offline

It’s easier to encourage/harass online than offline

”Why should it be more ok to harass someone by Internet/mobile phone? Still it’s human beings we talk about!” ”People have easier to harass when they not are standing ”face to face” I think, because of that people can be punched in communities, textmessages and so on. But I don’t think it’s ok.” ”It’s never ok to harass anyone, but if you do it by mobile phone or textmessages it’s easier to catch the guilty person, since you have proof.”

“It’s hard to say when you have harassed someone or not. It’s the person you send the messages to, who decides. Sometimes people don’t understand that things they write can be interpreted in another way and harass people deeply, I think. It’s easier to harass on Internet both in an intentional and in an unintentional way, though you can’t see their reactions and can’t hurry to change formulations before the damage has become too serious”

Who is going to supervise the online schoolyard?

“I would love to get a hug when I’m sad or confused, hugs works as we all know better when you are in the same place!”