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Digital Worlds and Doing the Right Thing: Morality, Ethics, and Civic Engagement

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Digital Youth

Part of the book series: Advancing Responsible Adolescent Development ((ARAD))

Abstract

We examine the role of technology as adolescents deal with the developmental task of constructing a moral and ethical set of values and becoming fully engaged, active members of their communities. Digital technologies such as the Internet and cell phone are both a tool and a social context and adolescents must learn to use them safely, securely, and legally. As a tool, the Internet provides youth with access to information, but youth also use it for plagiarism and to illegally download and share movies, music, and software. As a social context, the Internet allows adolescents to interact with peers and strangers, to participate in online communities, and to engage with their local and more distant communities. Online worlds also come with their own rules, etiquette, and social conventions and youth must learn to navigate them in ways that may at times be at odds with offline moral and ethical values. The first part of the chapter explores some of these complexities in relation to adolescents’ developing sense of morality and ethics online and addresses the following topics: (1) maintaining privacy online (2) falsifying information online (3) online cheating and stealing (4) cyber plagiarism (5) software piracy and illegal downloading of music, movies, and software. The second part of the chapter examines how youth use technology to engage with their communities, including local, national, and even global ones.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    For the full report of the sites surveyed, see Montgomery, Gottlieb-Robles, & Larson, 2004.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Psychology, California State University, Los Angeles, CA, 90032-8227, USA

    Kaveri Subrahmanyam

  2. Faculty of Social Studies, Masaryk University, Brno, 602 00, Czech Republic

    David Šmahel

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  1. Kaveri Subrahmanyam
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  2. David Šmahel
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Correspondence to Kaveri Subrahmanyam .

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Subrahmanyam, K., Šmahel, D. (2011). Digital Worlds and Doing the Right Thing: Morality, Ethics, and Civic Engagement. In: Digital Youth. Advancing Responsible Adolescent Development. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4419-6278-2_6

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