Ethics Topics: Children Online

The safety of children is of great concern in online activities as is their exposure to unsuitable web content. This might seem like an easy ethics topic to write about, but in fact it is pretty complicated. For one, we have broad societal consensus that anything harmful to children is unacceptable. In other words, there's no one to argue with if you want to try to persuade people that child cyber-stalking, or child porn, or in any other way preying on children online is wrong. Everybody already agrees that it is wrong.

Thus, if you want to make an ethical argument, you need to find a way to approach the subject in ways that normal people (anyone short of an outright sociopath) might reasonably disagree with.

You might go about this in any number of ways. One approach might be to investigate and debate the choices parents make in an effort to protect children. Does a child or teenager, for example, have privacy rights? Is it wrong for a parent to engage in digital spying in the name of protecting the child? If parents do spy on their children's online activities, how far is too far to take the effort?

You might also look at issues that fall short of actual cyber-stalking but could also be misconstrued or viewed as unethical by some. What about parents friending their children's friends on social networking sites or teachers friending students? That in itself might not be unethical, but what if the adults discuss things with the children or post things that the children see that those children's own parents wouldn't approve of? Where should adults and children draw the line on cyber-relationships?

Then of course there is the issue of schools blocking certain types of Internet sites in an effort to protect children. Sometimes the blocks also keep out educational sites that classrooms might find useful. What are the ethics of this? Where are we right or wrong to make blanket decisions about what classrooms can access?

What do you think? What are some other ways this topic could be addressed?