ABSTRACT
The four notable characteristics of online communication lead into a discussion of the major ethical issues confronting us as people increasingly depend upon electronic communication. These are privacy and confidentiality, online deception and manipulation in cyberspace, abusive communication and discrimination: bigotry online. Cyberbullying as a form of online abusive communication has received a great deal of attention. News media have publicized several well-known cases of teenage suicide traced back to cyberbullying. These unethical communications can include speech or messages that are racist, sexist, homophobic, demeaning to religious groups or national origins. The Computer Ethics Institute, a Project of the Brookings Institution, established such a code of ethics that apply to communication technology. As technology continues rapidly to evolve, the technology itself is ethically neutral. Technology itself is mathematically programmed, wired, and housed in cases, machines, and devices. A framework for ethical communication online is represented by principles from dialogical communication and from Scanlon's perspective on mutual obligations in communication.
