Technological Advances and Unethical Behavior – Bad for our Kids

As one who is interested in ethics and being an example for children, the weekend of December 16th was particularly painful. That Sunday the Boston Globe headline, center page, read:

Army knew of cheating on tests for eight years
Hundreds of thousands of exam copies used, Globe probe finds

Turning to the Maine Sunday Telegram, the front center headline was more local, but amazingly similar.

Accustations shock, sadden community
Trusted lawyer in trouble

Inside that same paper was a guest editorial by Rushworth Kidder of the Center for Global Ethics entitled “MySpace, Suicide, and Defensive Ethics.”

The Megan Maier Story
The editorial told the tragic story of Megan Maier, a 13-year-old from the Midwest, who hung herself after theoretically being dumped by her 16-year-old boyfriend Josh, a person Maier had never met. The two had communicated through the young girl’s page on MySpace.com.

Actually, Maier did not communicate with Josh as he did not exist. He was the fictional creation of a 47 year-old adult, the mother of Maier’s one time best friend, a woman who lived four houses down the street from the 13-year-old.

After first flirting with the teen, the woman under the Josh-alias began insulting Maier. The perpetrator reportedly knew Maier to be in emotional difficulty, that the teenager was taking anti-depressants because of concerns about her weight and her lack of friends, and she proceeded to take advantage of her emotional state. She also had issues with the fact her daughter and Maier had a falling out.

Turns out that the 47-year-old neighbor’s final message, written as “Josh” to Megan, read as follows:

“The world would be a better place without you.”

The message arrived a matter of minutes before Megan’s mother found her daughter dead.

Not Illegal Behavior?
Kidder in his editorial speaks totally to the issue of teaching ethics by noting that the “author of this fatal hoax has not been charged with any crime — because, as a local sheriff’s department spokesman said, what that neighbor did ‘might’ve been rude, it might’ve been immature, but it wasn’t illegal’?”

Such thoughts would make anyone cringe.

For those who are knowledgeable of Kidder and his work, this case is precisely in line with his basic premise. Technological advances are making the importance of ethical behavior more important than at any time in our history.

Notes Kidder, “This story is about many things: bullying, mental cruelty, teenage yearnings, and an absence of conscience so chilling and remorseless that it can only be described as moral idiocy. But what makes this story so significant is the way it illustrates the conundrums that spring forth along the frontier where our values and our technologies meet. I’m convinced that the most gripping, tormenting dilemmas of our future will arise along this interface between ethics and cyberspace.”

It also mirrors Kidder’s other basic premise. That ethics always trumps law – it is simply not possible nor practical to define every possible criminal action. But the behavior of this 47-year-old woman violated every tenant of a world defined by ethical behavior, a world where compassion, integrity and responsibility would have clearly marked this behavior as wrong and unacceptable.

And as our children face the risks inherent in the web, Kidder rightfully notes, “Against such threats, who is teaching our children to be alert, savvy, and self-protective?”

The Need to Educate and Protect our Children
We have noted many times the challenges of technology as it relates to the classroom. But Mr. Kidder eloquently notes that technology presents challenges we could never have imagined and dangers we could never have predicted.

The potential dangers of the Internet are every bit as real as the dangers of drugs and alcohol. Warning our children about possible predators on the net and other potential dangers must become part of the educational landscape. In fact, what makes this step most imperative is the fact that in most cases parents themselves are simply not aware of what potential issues the worldwide web has created.

In addition, the advances in technology mean that we as a society must do more than conform to the basic rule of law, it demands a higher order, a set of ethical principles and core values that trump law. In fact, it is now obvious that character education (including discussions regarding potential victimization) is no less important to our children than are their classes in math and science.