Ethical Issues in Internet Communication

My intention is to discuss in this chapter the numerous and multifarious Ethical Issues in Internet Communication. Once I have defined the term “ethics”, its issues and its various forms, I will address the specific ethical problems which emerge in connection with the world of the Internet and examine the different strategies generally used for tackling them. To this end, I will differentiate and single out two ways in which we can successfully relate to the Internet. On the one hand it is necessary to individuate the issues regarding the Internet’s impact on society: it is worth reflecting preliminarily on these issues in order to understand the changes in human behaviour caused by the emerging technologies. On the other hand, it is possible to discern behaviour problems relating to how we use the web: a behaviour that can be defined as good or bad, fair or unfair, starting form criteria and principles that have to be established and justified. I will term the former aspect “Ethics of the Internet” and the latter “Ethics in the Internet”. Both will be developed in my paper.