Ethical behaviour in computer use among students at Bentong Vocational College

Abstract

The emergence of computer ethics in the environment of ubiquitous Information and Communication Technology is not new as it had been blooming since the 1970s. The terminology of ethical behavior in computer use aka computer ethics in this study based on the Ten Commandments of Computer Ethics by Computer Ethics Institute (1992). This research sought to investigate the students’ ethical behavior in computer use, to know whether the students were behaving ethically or not. Besides, this study examined the factors that influence the ethical behavior in computer use at Bentong Vocational College. In addition, the research studied if there is any significant difference between the students with high academic achievement and low academic achievement with regards to their ethical behavior in computer use. Another primary focus of this research was to address the applicability of the Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB). A total of one-hundred and twenty-five (125) students; fifty-one (51) Computer System and Networking students and seventy-four (74) Business Management students from Bentong Vocational College were the targeted respondents. This study had adopted the quantitative approach to conducting a survey. The instruments were questionnaires distributed to the vocational college students. The Ten (10) Commandments of Computer Ethics and TPB were adapted to develop the questionnaire to be investigated in the study. This research would assert that attitude, subjective norm, and perceived behavioral control were positively correlated with ethical behavior in computer use. The results showed that the Theory of Planned Behavior were related to attitude, subjective norm, and perceived behavioral control contexts. However, the result showed that there was no significant difference between students with high academic achievement and low academic achievement with regards to ethical behavior in computer use.