Values in the Digital World

Values in the Digital World
The book tells the story of the moral values young people bring to their interactions in the digital world and the positive possibilities of using Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) as domains for ethical development. Yet it also tells the story of how ICTs can be used to hurt others, without a need to engage with one’s own sense of right and wrong, which can lead to a sense of exemption from moral responsibility. The book outlines a Digital Moral Framework (DMF) that parents and teachers can use to foster moral values and abilities, and address moral challenges faced by young people while using ICTs.

The content is based on my PhD study and my interactions with young people on daily basis in the context of teaching Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) in high schools, for now 20 years.

I wanted to understand adolescent moral development in their use of ICTs

1. How do moral reasoning, moral emotion and moral behaviour (the moral domains) mediate secondary school students’ uses of Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs)?

2. The ethical challenges young people face while using ICTs.

3. How to foster the moral values and abilities that mediate the moral domains while using ICTs?

The first outcome of my study is a Digital Moral Framework (DMF) that parents and teachers can use to foster moral values and abilities, and address moral challenges faced by young people while using ICTs. The second outcome is the Cyber Values Systems model (CVS) that can be used to understand the role of values (moral and immoral) in the use of ICTs.