Browse Books

Reviewer: Barrett Hazeltine

This short book presents survey results about the moral and ethical attitudes of young people, between the ages of ten and 25 years, toward Internet behavior. The narrative is organized around five cases: a webcam viewing of a college roommate having sex with a same-sex partner and two other examples of digital behavior, Facebook tagging of a college athlete at a forbidden party before a game, submitting for course credit a paper based on a Wikipedia article that the student had himself written, scamming a naive player of a multiplayer game, and sharing photos and videos of a group of high school students sexually assaulting a heavily intoxicated female. The first of these cases sets the stage. The themes illustrated by the other cases are, in the order above, privacy, property, participation, and correcting the blind spots. The thrust of the book is what participants were thinking, or not thinking, about. Three thinking types seem important: self-focused thinking (what will happen to me__?__), moral thinking (being aware of the effect on another person), and ethical thinking (implications for the larger community). Another thrust of the book is how to reduce the blind spots young people have to moral and ethical concerns. One reason moral/ethical issues are important in dealing with digital matters is the strong social pressure to be digitally connected that each young person feels. Young people deal with privacy issues in three ways: establishing norms of behavior, as when a group of eight tweens agree on what can be accessed; behaving as if “privacy is in your own hands”; and acting as if privacy is impossible on the web. Young people seem to be uncertain about property rights on the web. They do recognize that authors or musicians suffer when their work is copied, but most young people would copy if they thought they would not be penalized. Self-focused thinking dominates thinking about property rights. The chapter on participation includes more than cheating others in games; it considers disagreeable dialogue and offensive posts, actions that affect all participating. One mindset is “play nice,” reflecting a moral sensitivity. Another mindset is a regard for the online community, reflecting an ethical sensitivity. About half of the teens and young adults, though, expressed a dismissive “it's just the Internet” attitude about behavior that diminishes the online experience for others. Narrowing the ethics gap may be accomplished through developing ethical thinking skills, cultivating ethical sensitivity, cultivating motivation to act, and enacting socially positive online deeds. The author has created an educational tool kit, aimed at students from kindergarten to high school, promoting the actions that narrow the ethics gap. In several places in the book, the role of adults is discussed; generally, adults do not seem to be an effective positive force. The research reported appears to be sound and thorough. The writing is clear, scholarly, and accessible. The book is probably of most immediate interest to people teaching, or developing programs that teach, middle or high school students, but it is of general interest to anyone concerned with the future of our society. More reviews about this item: Goodreads Online Computing Reviews Service

Reviewer: Fazli Can

This book is organized along three lines: privacy, property, and participation in the digital age, both from a moral and an ethical point of view. The arguments are based on research that uses qualitative data collected from extensive interviews with tweens, teens, young adults, and adults influential in young people's lives. The emphasis is on peer-to-peer ethical issues. The first chapter opens with examples of invaded privacy, stolen intellectual property, and finally a participation case that entails racism. The privacy invasion example involves secretly videotaping the same-sex love affair of an 18-year-old male Rutgers University student who, because of the incident, committed suicide. The stolen property case involves a female teenager who entered German literary circles with success, but it was later found out that she lifted text from another author's novel; she apologized and referred to her action as creative remixing. The troubling participation case is about a Facebook group created by some New York City police officers. Posts on the public page referred to the people of a parade as "savages" and "animals." Later, 17 police officers faced disciplinary action by the New York City Police Department (NYPD). The author defines two shortfalls in not considering the consequences of an activity: blind spots and disconnects. Blind spots are unconscious, naive, and unintentional; on the other hand, disconnects are conscious and mindful. She argues that they are common to an unfortunate degree and occur when we collaborate, interact, play, and share content by email, text message, and social media. In chapters 2 through 4, "Privacy," "Property," and "Participation," James explores young people's mindsets, providing specific example problems for each of the dimensions. In the fifth and final chapter, "Correcting the Blind Spots, Reconnecting the Disconnects," James starts with the Steubenville, Ohio rape case of August 2012, where a teenage girl was sexually assaulted by high school football players, arguing that the Internet not only magnifies such harm but also provides opportunities for addressing it. She provides pointers for correcting blind spots and disconnects with proactive behavior on the digital front, as well as on educational, home, peer, and individual fronts. The book ends with a hopeful tone for the future. This timely book is worth reading and requires reflection. I would highly recommend it to people who are interested in ethical issues in digital media. The book includes a detailed index, notes, and references for each chapter, and an appendix that details the research. The index contains minor omissions: for example, "moral thinking," one of the key concepts of the book, is not included. More reviews about this item: Goodreads Online Computing Reviews Service