Raphael Cohen-Almagor
University of Hull
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Lecture Plan
 Section I -- Introduction
 Section II -- moral and social responsibility.
 Section III -- responsibility of Net agents.
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Introduction
 The Internet is a macro system of interconnected
private and public spheres: household, literary,
military, academic, business and government
networks.
 The mix of open standards, diverse networks, and the
growing ubiquity of digital devices makes the Internet
a revolutionary force that undermines traditional
media and challenges existing regulatory institutions
based on national boundaries.
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The Internet
The Internet contains the best products of humanity 
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Ufff…
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Worse of Humanity
Unfortunately, the Internet also contains the worse
products of humanity:
 Child Pornography, Pedophilia
 Terror
 Racism, Hate speech and Holocaust denial
 Crime-facilitating speech
 Cyberbullying
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Relevant Factors
 History
 Culture
 Morality
 Law
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The Object of this Paper
 The object of this Paper is to discuss moral and social
responsibility of people who utilize the Internet for
their own vile purposes.
 The Paper addresses the ethical problems rooted in
technology in response to potential risks on the
Internet.
 The Internet is not the problem.
 The problem arises where it is utilized to undermine
our well-being as autonomous beings living in free
societies.
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Moral and Social Responsibility
 Legal responsibility refers to addressing the issue by
agencies of state power.
 In moral responsibility, the personal responsibility of
the agent to conscience is at issue, with appeals to
moral consideration.
 Social responsibility relates to the societal implications
of a given conduct.
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Aristotle
 Only a certain kind of agent qualifies as a moral agent and
is thus properly subject to ascriptions of responsibility,
namely, one who possess a capacity for decision.
 Choice is important, to have desirable ends and relevant
means to pursue the end.
 By moral responsibility it is meant that autonomous agents
have the understanding of the options before them, have
access to evidence required for making judgments about
the benefits and hazards of each option, and able to weigh
the relative value of the consequences of their choice.
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William J. FitzPatrick
 all cases of moral responsibility for bad actions must
involve a strong form of akrasia, i.e. acting against
one’s better judgment.
 If an agent does something bad, either she does so in
full knowledge that she should not be doing it, which
is clear-eyed akrasia, or she is acting from ignorance.
 In the former cases she will be held responsible.
 In the latter case whether she is responsible or not will
depend on whether or not her ignorance is culpable.
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Online/Offline
 In the Internet age, an interesting phenomenon
emerged that confuses the concept of moral and social
responsibility.
 In the offline, real world, people know that they are
responsible for the consequences of their conduct,
speech as well as action.
 In the online, cyber world, we witness responsibility
shake-off.
 You can assume your dream identity and then
anything goes.
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Online/Offline
 The freedom allows language one would dread to use
in real life, words one need not abide by, imagination
that trumps conventional norms and standards.
 The Internet has a dis-inhibition effect.
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Agent's Responsibility
 An agent will be held blameworthy for her bad
conduct when she clearly aims at doing bad or when
she can be held culpable for her ignorance in making
bad choices.
 As Aristotle said, an autonomous agent is aware of
what she was doing.
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Power of Words
 Words can wound. Words can hurt. Words can move
people to action.
 The anonymity of the Internet is most convenient for
spreading unfounded allegations, for backstabbing, for
malicious rumours, for pushing people to conduct
harmful actions to others as well as to themselves.
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JuicyCampus.com
 JuicyCampus.com became a focus of attention in
recent years as it was used to ruin the name of young
people. The site described itself as “the world's most
authentic college website, with content generated by
college students for college students. Just remember,
keep it Juicy!
 JuicyCampus closed down on February 5, 2009.
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The Megan Meier Affair
 Lori Drew, 49, her daughter Sarah, who was then 13,
and Ashley Grills, 19, a family friend and employee,
created on the computer mediated community,
MySpace, a fictitious teenage boy “Josh Evans” to
communicate with Sarah’s nemesis, Megan Meier, who
was 13 and had a history of depression and suicidal
impulses.
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The Megan Meier Affair
 Online affair with “Josh”.
 Suddenly, he broke relations with her.
 The distraught Megan tried to understand why “Josh”
no longer wanted to be her friend, involving her
MySpace friends in a discussion.
 The query escalated into a barrage of insults and fierce
exchanges.
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The Megan Meier Affair
 Megan received other e-mails from “Josh” in which he
called her “fat” and “slut,” and that “You're a shitty
person, and the world would be a better place without
you in it.”
 “You’re the kind of boy a girl would kill herself over.”
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Moral Responsibility
 Lori Drew and her co-conspirators are blameworthy
and morally culpable for their involvement in this
tragedy, for playing on Megan’s emotions in a crude
and cynical way without thinking which way this game
might lead.
 They were fully aware of what they were doing. No one
coerced them to take this crude path.
 They chose it freely, exhibiting a strong form of cleareyed akrasia, acting against their adult better
judgment.
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The Megan Meier Affair
 parental responsibility
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Cyberbullying
 Research shows that almost one in four children
between the ages of 11 and 19 have been the victim of
cyberbullying.
 Teens who share their identities and thoughts on
social networking sites, such as MySpace and
Facebook, are more likely to be targets than are those
who do not use social networking sites.
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What Can Be Done?
 Stories like that of Megan Meier should be brought to
classes and discussed openly and fervently.
 People, especially young people, should be made
aware of the power of the word and settle the
confusion between online and offline responsibility.
 Sites like www.netsmartz.org and
http://kids.getnetwise.org/tools/ are instrumental in
providing information and promoting awareness
regarding the possible harms of social networking
forums on the Net.
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What Can Be Done?
 We need to teach our children that silence, when
others are being hurt, is not acceptable.
 Safety should be maintained online and offline and
studies should be carried out about the connections
between the two.
 As stopcyberbullying.org holds, the task is to create a
generation of good cybercitizens, controlling the
technology instead of being controlled by it.
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Suicide
 suicide pills and "exit bags”
 "save the planet, kill yourself”
 Notwithstanding the extent of the agents' liberalism,
they should consider the prudence of such postings
given the vulnerability of the people that such sites
might attract.
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Suicide
 In mid-2004, Internet Service Providers, police,
academics and NGOs in Japan discussed what actions
should be taken regarding suicide chatrooms and
prevention of online suicide pacts.
 ISPs should continue to develop and embrace
initiatives designed to protect users, especially
children.
 These include technological tools as well as
educational campaigns.
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Conclusion
 The Internet does not have any borders but it does
have limits.
 Aristotle’s Rule of the Golden Mean.
 Net users should act responsibly.
 Readers should use tip lines and alert the authorities
upon encountering dangerous, anti-social content.
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From
Alberto Ríos/In Us This Day
Sometimes, we are brutal and dark green.
We are the fishhook thorns on the wild cactus.
But sometimes as well, we are the sky itself,
That great blue living room filled with endless space
In every direction there is to see.
We are,
As things turn out, the answer and the problem both.
Every day we must choose our suit of clothes.
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Thank you
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