Internet ethics: principles, challenges, and contemporary issues

INTERNET ETHICS refers to responsible and fair use of a technology whose very nature makes its vulnerable to unethical activities. When a person is granted a right, it is important that he doesn't abuse it or his right may turn into a nuisance for others. Free, unrestricted use of the Internet is also one such right which when abused raises many ethical issues, which need to be addressed to ensure proper, use of this technology in future. Internet Ethics is a vast topic, which covers every unethical activity that is connected with the Net, ranging from email spamming, private information disclosure to copyright infringement, plagiarism and misleading health information. It is believed that a code of conduct should exist for Internet users, so that they won't cross ethical lines. While this appears to be a far-fetched idea, it is certainly important to target the areas, most plagued by unethical problems including cyber porn, plagiarism, consumer data and copyright violation.

There are numerous cases of online fraud whereby consumers would order something and never receive anything or they would be given false information about product size and contents only to discover later that all claims were highly misleading. Internet is usually fraught with countless such cases and this raises serious ethical issues. However with people becoming more cautious, fake companies cannot survive for long on the Web. Even if they do, they don't pose as big a threat to the consumers as a well-known reliable firm that distributes private consumer data to other companies. In business, nothing is more important than trust but it has been noticed that many online companies share consumer data for advertising, email spamming etc. "Consumer concerns regarding Internet privacy are not without merit. Information technology has created an unprecedented revolution in the ability to systematically acquire and disseminate consumer data...Individual consumption behavior can be easily tracked, profiled, and shared among diverse users. People are becoming increasingly aware that they lack any measure of anonymity in Web-based activities." (Bozman et al., 2002)

Cyber-porn is another major ethical issue. While pornographic material is available even offline, with Internet the access to such material has been extremely easy which poses a serious threat to young minds. Underage users are most vulnerable to negative effects of pornography. One report on cyber porn (2003) writes: "The Internet's wide range of information search and retrieval technologies, which make it possible to quickly find a vast array of information, also make it easy to access, disseminate, and trade pornographic images and videos, including child pornography." Apart from pornography, there is intellectual property infringement, which is a cause of major concern especially in the music industry. Theft of intellectual property is a serious punishable offence and Internet has only made it easier. With music piracy for example, not only do the artists not get paid for the music they have composed because of the reproduction of the music, the music companies also end up losing as MP3s are downloaded directly from the Internet without going through the trouble of purchasing a CD. It significantly limits the musician's earnings, which is a result of two factors. When a person has accessed an MP3 file, he can reproduce several copies of the music without worrying about the copyright issue as no one can trace who initially did that.