Ethics and The Web

What is Ethics?

• Ethics is people's personal sense of right and wrong.
• In the real world, there is a universal understanding that anyone who has done something "wrong" will result to a hurtful consequence.
• We learn this through life experiences and/or discipline by authority (ie. parents, the law).
• It is human nature to avoid being punished which is why most people are intimidated to do anything illegal or socially unacceptable.

Birth of the Web

• In 1991, Tim Berners-Lee created a new world called the World Wide Web.
• This is where people can:
  • communicate with other internet users,
  • share and collect information with each other,
  • all in an almost instantaneous speed.

CyberEthics

The internet is a very exciting, yet uncontrolled space. For this reason, people have the difficulty to transfer their ethical behaviors in the real world to the cyberspace.