Ethics of ICT

Ethics is a reflection on morality. It refers to the principles of right and wrong in making choices by individuals. It has been described as the art and science that seeks to bring sensitivity and methods to the discernment of moral values (Carbo, 2006). Thus, ethics guide human and societal behavior. Capuro (2006) had no difficulty in asserting that ethics is an unending quest on explicit and implicit use of the moral code.
The subject of social and ethical implications of Information and Communication technology has been addressed in the literature. As noted by Carbo (2006) ethical considerations for ICT related issues first appeared under the topic ‘’information ethics’’ in the Annual Review of Information Science and Technology in 1992. This suggests that there is an ethical agenda associated with the use of ICT. Individuals and organisations therefore need to be ethically sensitive as they deploy ICT on their operations. The impact of ICT on human relationship has been tremendous. ICT has helped to enhance family relationship (e.g. mobile phones, palmtops, laptops, virtual conferencing and so on), as well help to separate family and friends from each other. ICT has enabled new friendship and relationships in virtual communities. How genuine are such relationship? What does it portend for individual satisfaction? In the workplace for instance, new kinds of jobs are being created such as data miners, web-counselors etc, but these opportunities are also endangered by problems of unemployment from computer replacing humans. A wide range of new laws, regulations, rules and practices are therefore needed if society is to manage these workplace and other changes and development brought about by ICT. Thus the society need to consider the following ethical and social challenges related to ICT use: