A-Level Computer Science Revision Guide: Ethical, Moral, and Cultural Issues
This revision guide explores the ethical, moral, and cultural challenges posed by advancements in computer technology, essential for A-Level Computer Science. Key topics include AI and Automated Decision-Making, Envir...
Computer science—A Level—Topic 13 Ethical, Moral and cultural issues
Computers in work place Censorship and the internet Environmental issues
Computers can be used in work places to allow Refers to the deliberate suppression of There are many environmental issues to do
employees to: access modern productivity tools materials that can be found online and with computers due to the materials used, the
and specialised software; carry their daily work what can/can not be published. energy consumption and the CO2 used to pro-
efficiently and collab with others—Also used in •As part of its duty of care, a school has duce them.
the automation of robots in manufacturing sec- a moral and legal obligation to safe- •An average computer takes about 9 times its
tors. guard its students by blocking access to weight in fossil fuel to produce it.
•Computers can operate for longer without any inappropriate materials. •2% of Global energy consumptions is used up
breaks. •The government require ISP's to block by cloud storage.
•Computers are more precise and work consist- materials such as: Extremist politics, •Computers also contain toxic elements for ex-
ently. extreme pornography and copyright ample mercury and chromium which can be
•Evolution of technology is allowing low-skilled infringement. found in circuit boards, switches and relays.
jobs to be automated making more people un- •Other countries may be very strict on •Old computer equipment gets disposed to
employed. censorship like North Korea restricting countries with lower standards for disposal and
so much that even the people there may have people exposed to these toxic ele-
don’t know what is going on around ments.
the world.
Computer technology used to monitor behaviour
Advancements of technology has led to devices being able to moni-
tor our behaviours and this can be split into 3 categories: deliberately
chosen by the user (fitness trackers) , passive tracking (CCTV) and
forced tracking (GPS tagging).
•For example CCTV cameras are always passively tracking our behav-
iours, this is to prevent crime and hold evidence for a scene and over-
all keeping the public safe.
Automated decision making •Employers can also monitor their employees to see if they are being
The process of computers making decisions productive or not but viewing what sites they have visited and how
based on sets of predefined rules and parame- long for and seeing what work they have done.
ters without human involvement.
•Some may think that it is invading their privacy however they are
•Can be helpful as it saves time for example 90% being paid to do what is expected so they should not have to worry
of stock transactions are done automatically whether they are being monitored.
with no human transactions.
•Employers shouldn’t track the social media of people as this would
•Letting a computer make decisions might not go be unnecessary and invasive of their privacy.
well with important things like deciding if some-
one is eligible for a mortgage as it may reject Computer technology used to analyse personal information
them and maybe the person would rather talk Big data is an extremely large data sets that may be analysed computationally to reveal
to a person instead of computer. patterns, trends and associations in human behaviour and interaction.
•Data mining is a term to describe the process of analysing large data sets to find anoma-
lies, patterns and correlations to predict outcomes.
•This raises concerns about the ethical and moral issues involving this as a lot of personal
data is being collected and processed however it predicts trends that are important statis-
tically for science etc.
•Who has access? Who owns data about you? How can your data be retrieved? How is
your data protected? Is it protected from hackers?
Artificial intelligence
Artificial intelligence is the capability of a ma-
chine to perceive its environment and make
appropriate steps to maximise success of its
programmed goals. There are two types of AI: Piracy and offensive communications
•Generalised AI: can evolve and improve to han- Piracy is the illegal access or use of copyrighted materials without
dle tasks which is closely linked to machine the permissions of the owner, it has grew ever since commercial
learning. content began to go digital and it has become an issue.
•Weak AI: designed to manage a specific task •You can protect digital content with: Copyright, Trademarks, Pa-
like image recognition. tents, licensing.
•Legalisation that help to reduce this: Copyright design and patents
AI can be used in self driving cars to reduce act and computer misuse act.
traffic-related deaths but will lead to unavoida- •Social media platforms and forums can be a hot spot for hate
ble deaths. speech and toxicity, the term internet troll describes someone who
Who should be held accountable for the actively sparks arguments through offensive content or comments.
choices the AI algorithm makes?
How can we ensure safety with the implemen- Layout, colour paradigms and character sets
tation of the algorithm and what should the AI The internet and software we use has a global audience – which has
do in an unavoidable death situation? cultural implications.
In the case of a loss life, who should be held •For example a western country will be laid out to suit a western
legally responsible? audience so material is displayed from top to bottom and read from
Should the algorithm be bias for example pri- left to right where as other countries may slight adjustments to their
oritising old people over young people? websites like reading from right to left.
•The use of colours is another area of software design interface
which has its cultural implications as colours have different mean-
ings in different countries for example blue connotates the ocean,
water etc whilst some other culture may thing it connotates heat.
•Consideration should be taken when choosing a character set that is
most suitable for your chosen audience.
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