Chapter 4: Ethics and Digital Responsibility

Ethics means knowing what is right and choosing to do it. Online, that means being honest, respectful and careful — protecting your passwords and personal information, giving credit for others' work, and remembering that what you do online leaves a lasting digital footprint.

Learning outcomes

Explain what ethics means and apply it to everyday technology use
Describe active and passive digital footprints
Recognise unsafe online behaviour such as phishing, weak passwords and plagiarism

Activities

Footprint trail: list everything you did online yesterday
Spot-the-scam message sorting game

Worked examples

Read through these first, then try the practice below.

Example 1 — Active or passive footprint?
Riya posts a photo of her science project. A shopping app records which toys she looked at. Which footprint is which?
Solution: Posting the photo is an active footprint — Riya chose to share it. The app recording her browsing is a passive footprint — it was collected without her posting anything.
Example 2 — Is this message safe?
A message says: 'You won a free tablet! Share the OTP sent to your phone within 10 minutes to claim it.' What should you do?
Solution: Do not reply or share the OTP. Urgency, a prize you never entered for, and a request for a one-time password are classic signs of phishing. Tell a parent or teacher.

Self-do practice

Question 1 of 10 · Score 0/0

Which is the strongest password?