What do college students do and think about IT ethics?

Abstract

Ethics has become a part of many Information Technology (IT) and business classes at colleges and universities. However, the way of teaching IT ethical behavior is sometimes non-effective. Yet, many current ethical issues related to emerging technologies such as big data and Artificial Intelligence (AI) are not considered at all. The paper aims to explore relationships between students’ demographics and inclination towards unethical behavior. The study presents results of a multinational survey conducted with convenience samples of college students at public universities in seven countries from Europe, Africa and North America between October 2017 and January 2018. The survey instrument contained items reporting on perceived importance of IT ethics issues, personal experience with them, and several demographics questions. Data analysis is done with descriptive statistics, one-way ANOVA and F-tests. We conclude that nationality, gender, degree year, computer skills and perception of the importance of IT ethics are significantly related with behavior. Perceptions and behavior of students evolve with the rapid pace of technology, which should be a major concern both for educators and business managers as they would recruit prospective employees from the current students.