Ethical topics

2. The internet and social media

The internet is an amazing resource. We use it on a daily basis for entertainment, socialising, research, shopping and so many more things. Always available, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 52 weeks of the year. It's hard to imagine a life without it.

Most of us use social media sites to keep in touch with family and friends. Facebook, Instagram, Snap Chat, Twitter and many others. People would probably say that their experiences of these sites are positive.

No one owns the internet. No one manages it. No one is responsible for it. This is both the greatest benefit and greatest drawback of the Internet.

The lack of a centralised authority makes it easy for people to be anonymous and bully or troll others. Upsetting, gruesome and inappropriate images are regularly shared and it can be quite a shock to see an unasked-for image appear in your news feed.

These sites are owned and operated by organisations.

We don't pay a fee to use them, but the owners make money from advertising and sponsorship.

Do they have an ethical and moral obligation to make sure that all content posted on their platform is acceptable? Should they be held accountable for obscene or inappropriate content that their users put online?

They do make tremendous efforts to keep the worst of it off their platforms but there are always grey areas where it is one person's opinion versus another person.