Cyber-Ethics and the Perceptions of Internet Users: A Case Study of University Students of Islamabad

Abstract

This research aims to investigate the contemporary situation of ‘cyber-ethics’ that is prevailing among the users of the internet. The cyber world seems to be a second or virtual world for all of those who use the internet. Three diverse perspectives of cyber-ethics, i.e. Professional, Philosophical and Descriptive give a better understanding of how different philosophers, social scientists and even computer professionals view cyber-ethics and how the advancement in the field of technology can be embedded into the social system. Along with the advantages of being ‘connected’ to the world at large, it also brings some disadvantages on the ethical side and it is no astonishment that Pakistan is also not liberated from the cyber space dilemma. A survey was conducted in four major universities of Islamabad in order to measure the perception of internet users regarding the concept of ‘cyberethics’. The survey was carried out on 304 respondents (152 males, 152 females) and a detailed questionnaire was used as the prime tool of the survey method. Although the perception of male and female students differ from each other in various regards (as supported by the Ethical Theory of Relativism), the results reveal that there is a positive attitude of respondents towards the main concept of cyber-ethics on the whole, but there is still a long way to go in order to obtain a better understanding and to adopt the proper ways of using cyber technology.