Obligations for IT Ethics Education

Abstract

Software Engineering professionals impact on society in more pervasive and invasive ways than perhaps any other profession to date. Through the software systems they design and build, software engineers touch the everyday lives of virtually all individuals, whether involved in a business, a government service agency, an educational institution, or just paying taxes. The use of the term “professional” implies some expected standard of behaviour; in the case of the software professional, that standard of behaviour is generally with respect to human-human interaction and human-machine interaction [Martin90], [Oz94a]. Recognition and awareness of the importance of this standard of behaviour is reflected in the results of a recent survey by the Council of Scientific Society Presidents, Ethics in Science Committee which found that of the ten major characteristics found in existing or proposed scientific ethics policies, 76% of them include some statement addressing responsibilities to society [Jorgensen95]. Many of the professional computer societies, including Association for Computing Machinery, Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers, Data Processing Managers Association, Institute for Certification of Computer Professionals, Canadian Information Processing Society and British Computer Society, address responsibility to society in their codes of ethics [Martin90], [Oz94a]. Included in the responsibilities to society, is the responsibility to educate the public about information technology [Martin90] [Oz94a]. This education responsibility extends the professional awareness of software engineers to professional awareness about Software Engineering and software engineers and from professional self to the society which is pervasively and invasively influenced by that profession.