Importance of Computer Ethics in Today’s Electronic Environments
Computer ethics are the moral guidelines that govern the use of computers and information systems. The standards that determine whether an action is good or bad are called ethics. There are several types of ethical and unethical situations, each situation may be looked at in a different opinion than others, but just about everyone agrees that certain places in cyberspace are inappropriate for children. What people don’t agree on is how to keep kids from entering sites where they don’t belong. Computer ethics are used when trying to prevent kids or teens from doing so. Such sites may include pornography or other sites that have violence. Some sites may have such information that kids shouldn’t know about. Given recent events such as what happened in Littleton, Colorado, it is also becoming clear that there’s more to protecting children in cyberspace than just blocking pornographic sites with filtering program. Those kids may have been able to enter sites that included some violent information that may have helped them plan their horrible massacre. If a type of computer ethics were used, then they may not have been able to view such material. Net Nanny is one of the more popular ones that are used. Along with Net Nanny there are other types of ethics to help prevent the viewing of inappropriate WebPages. Cyberpatrol, SurfWatch and CYBERsitter are just a few of the other types. Computer ethics aren’t just used in the home, they may also be used in your own workplace, or even school environments.