Moral and Legal Issues

Technology today can lead to several consequences for the younger generation. These consequences can stem specifically from the student not knowing how to properly navigate the internet or believing that once something is erased, it's gone forever. Unfortunately, such is not the case. There are several moral and legal issues we see on a daily basis when it comes to technology use.

When we think of the term moral, we think of right versus wrong, good versus bad, what we should do versus what we should not do. That being said, we know that it is morally wrong to post lewd and crude pictures on the internet. The same goes for inappropriate language. We know it is not morally correct. However, is this legally okay? It depends. As far as language, I believe it is not illegal to post inappropriate comments. It is also legal to cyber bully in certain states, although in some it is illegal. We can say that posting inappropriate, lewd, and foul language online is not moral. A student is not holding his or herself to the highest standard of moral they can if they are saying things online that they would not say to their parents, teachers, grandparents, etc.

We also know that breaking the law means to create an illegal act. Technology allows for laws to be broken left and right. Plagiarism, or copying another's work as your own, is one of the most substantial and most widely seen types of illegal behavior that I see. Students are given an essay prompt, type it into a search engine and use the first website that pops up. That's fine, until they decide to put their name on the paper without citing a single source. Last year, I caught five students plagiarizing, and two were suspended indefinitely. Although young, we have to understand that students do not know the consequences of their actions and therefore we must teach them. Sometimes it hits home and sometimes it doesn't. Perhaps some students even get away with plagiarism and it is never noticed. The bottom line though, if it is illegal, it is not morally correct to do, is it?

There is a fine line between moral and legal. When we commit an immoral act with technology, are we within the rights of the law? Additionally, when we commit an illegal act on the internet, are we morally correct and able justify that our actions were in the right?