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This article analyzes the connection between gamification and business success, focusing on customer retention, new customer acquisition, and transforming user perceptions. Based on a qualitative comparative analysis of 40 high-profile gamification projects, it shows that a combination of three key features—virtualization, social comparison, and tangible rewards—explain the various pathways to success. Each pathway requires the presence—and sometimes absence—of different design features, and firms do best when they focus on one or two objectives rather than all three at once. The article presents a framework for designing and implementing gamification more strategically and effectively, noting the ethical questions that arise. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR] more...

Copyright of Journal of Social Affairs is the property of Journal of Social Affairs and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.) more...

An introduction is presented which cites the 41-year history of the journal and outlines articles in the issue on topics including college students' decision making ability, ethical aspects of digital citizenship, and trademark protection in Saudi Arabia. more...

Social media is a key player in contemporary political, cultural and ethical debates. Given much of online engagement is characterised by impulsive and emotive responses, and social media platforms encourage a form of sensationalism that promotes epistemic vices, this paper explores whether there is space online for moral responses. This paper defends the need for moral engagement with online information and others, using an attitude entitled 'critical perspectivism'. Critical perspectivism sees a moral agent adopt a critical eye, supplemented by a caring disposition, when engaging with interactive digital media and the stories of others that are technologically mediated. Such an ethical attitude is required given our globally connected, technological world features new versions of recognisable challenges to democracy and the reasonableness of citizens. There is a vital role for educationalists to play in teaching and making space and time for students to practice being critically perspectival. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR] more...

When measures come to matter, those measured find themselves in a precarious situation. On the one hand, they have a strong incentive to respond to measurement so as to score a favourable rating. On the other hand, too much of an adjustment runs the risk of being flagged and penalized by system operators as an attempt to 'game the system'. Measures, the story goes, are most useful when they depict those measured as they usually are and not how they intend to be. In this article, I explore the practices and politics of optimization in the case of web search engines. Drawing on materials from ethnographic fieldwork with search engine optimization (SEO) consultants in the United Kingdom, I show how maximizing a website's visibility in search results involves navigating the shifting boundaries between 'good' and 'bad' optimization. Specifically, I am interested in the ethical work performed as SEO consultants artfully arrange themselves to cope with moral ambiguities provoked and delegated by the operators of the search engine. Building on studies of ethics as a practical accomplishment, I suggest that the ethicality of optimization has itself become a site of governance and contestation. Studying such practices of 'being ethical' not only offers opportunities for rethinking popular tropes like 'gaming the system', but also draws attention to often-overlooked struggles for authority at the margins of contemporary ranking schemes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR] more...

This article reports on issues of privacy and research ethics related to the use of computers and the internet. The article discusses how the concept of privacy has shifted legally and socially in the 21st century. The availability of personal information on the internet has created issues related to who controls information online, its rights and protections. Information is also provided on social networking websites, message board postings, and blogs and whether their content is protected published material. more...

Society’s growing dependence on computers and information technologies has been matched by an escalation of the frequency and sophistication of cyber attacks committed by criminals operating from the Darknet. As a result, security researchers have taken an interest in scrutinizing the Darknet and other underground web communities to develop a better understanding of cybercriminals and emerging threats. However, many scholars lack the capability or expertise to operationalize Darknet research and are thus unable to contribute to this increasingly impactful body of literature. This article introduces a framework for guiding such research, called Darknet Identification, Collection, Evaluation, with Ethics (DICE-E). The DICE-E framework provides a focused reference point and detailed guidelines for scholars wishing to become active in the Darknet research stream. Four steps to conducting Darknet forum research are outlined: (1) identification of Darknet data sources, (2) data collection strategies, (3) evaluation of Darknet data, and (4) ethical concerns related to Darknet research. To illustrate how DICE-E can be utilized, an example empirical study is reported. This exemplar illustrates how DICE-E can guide scholars through key decision points when attempting to incorporate the Darknet within their research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR] more...

Purpose The internet offers an opportunity for researchers to engage participants in research in a cost-effective and timely manner. Yet the use of the internet as a research tool (internet research) comes with a range of ethical concerns, and the rapidly changing online environment poses challenges for both researchers and ethics committees. The purpose of this paper is to highlight the key ethical issues of using the internet to recruit, retain and trace participants in public health research, from the perspectives of researchers and human research ethics committee (HREC) members.Design/methodology/approach This study employed a qualitative design using semi-structured interviews with eight public health researchers and seven HREC members in Australia to explore the key ethical issues of using the internet to engage research participants.Findings The study identified commonalities between researchers and HREC members regarding the utility and ethical complexity of using the internet to recruit, retain and trace research participants. The need for guidance and support regarding internet research, for both groups, was highlighted, as well as the need for flexibility and responsiveness in formal ethical processes.Originality/value This research contributes to the understanding of how the internet is used to engage participants in public health research and the ethical context in which that occurs. Supporting the ethical conduct of internet research will benefit those involved in research, including researchers, HRECs, organisations and research participants. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR] more...

This article deliberates concepts of Internet ethics from the perspectives of user and providers. It discusses concerns of the users from different disciplines. It addresses issues and corresponding regulations of service providers. It considers matters of privacy. The culmination is an exercise for students that incorporates usage of the Internet that will promote awareness of Internet ethics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR] more...

In the Social Web scenario, where large amounts of User Generated Content diffuse through Social Media, the risk of running into misinformation is not negligible. For this reason, assessing and mining the credibility of both sources of information and information itself constitute nowadays a fundamental issue. Credibility, also referred as believability, is a quality perceived by individuals, who are not always able to discern with their cognitive capacities genuine information from the fake one. For this reason, in the recent years several approaches have been proposed to automatically assess credibility in Social Media. Most of them are based on data-driven models, i.e., they employ machine-learning techniques to identify misinformation, but recently also model-driven approaches are emerging, as well as graph-based approaches focusing on credibility propagation. Since multiple social applications have been developed for different aims and in different contexts, several solutions have been considered to address the issue of credibility assessment in Social Media. Three of the main tasks facing this issue and considered in this article concern: (1) the detection of opinion spam in review sites, (2) the detection of fake news and spam in microblogging, and (3) the credibility assessment of online health information. Despite the high number of interesting solutions proposed in the literature to tackle the above three tasks, some issues remain unsolved; they mainly concern both the absence of predefined benchmarks and gold standard datasets, and the difficulty of collecting and mining large amount of data, which has not yet received the attention it deserves. WIREs Data Mining Knowl Discov 2017, 7:e1209. doi: 10.1002/widm.1209 For further resources related to this article, please visit the . [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR] more...

This article presents an overview of internet-based research, highlighting the absence of a standard terminology to define and classify such research. The label internet-based research or online research can cover a diverse range of research designs and methods, involving different degrees of ethical concern regarding privacy, transparency, confidentiality, and security. Although the basic principles of human research ethics (such as respect, integrity, justice, and beneficence) are still applicable in this context, interpreting and applying these principles correctly and protecting the interests of the research participants effectively are not easy to ensure. While the nature of the internet poses challenges of user authentication and confidentiality, the diversity of national laws and codes of ethics poses additional challenges. The article refers to relevant Canadian laws, with which the author is familiar. Finally, a set of recommendations are offered to mitigate the ethical challenges of internetbased research. These include ethical practices such as ensuring transparency while recruitment, considering participants' expectations about privacy, ensuring legal compliance, using secure communication protocols, obtaining informed and knowledgeable consent, offering participants the opportunity to withdraw from the research and retract their data, and ensuring that data are not used for subsequent non-research purposes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR] more...

This paper focuses on segmenting digital movie and TV series pirates and on investigating the effectiveness of piracy-combatting measures i.e., legal and educational strategies, in light of these segments. To address these research objectives, two online studies were conducted. First, 1277 valid responses were gathered with an online survey. Four pirate segments were found based on differing combinations of attitude toward piracy, ethical evaluation of piracy and feelings of guilt. The anti-pirate, conflicted pirate, cavalier pirate, and die-hard pirate can be placed on a continuum of increasing pirating frequency, subjective norm, pirating self-efficacy, habit, and decreasing in perceived harm, respectively. The segments also differ in deontological and teleological orientations. Second, in an experimental mixed design, we find that the educational strategy is more effective than the legal strategy in lowering pirating intentions for the conflicted and cavalier pirate. However, both strategies fail at lowering intentions of the die-hard pirate, although perceived harm and perceived impunity were significantly influenced. These findings offer a more profound understanding of pirate segments and how they react differently to piracy-combatting measures. As a result, better strategies can be developed to control digital piracy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR] more...

In this study, the authors examine how the internet is changing two critical personal value dimensions of India's youth. Based on values theory, and using data that spans a decade from 2004-2014, they contend that time spent on the internet is an influential factor in changing self-enhancement and self-transcendence values. Given the tremendous increase in exposure to western products, ideals, and people-to-people interaction via internet connectivity (India has over 275 million internet users who communicate in the English language), the authors posit that young Indian consumers would adopt values associated with self-enhancement and individualism, forsaking self-transcendence related ideals. Data pertaining to the Rokeach value scales were collected in New Delhi, and the results support the notion that these values have indeed changed substantially in such a short amount of time, largely due to IT as opposed to other media vehicles such as TV, and print media. Implications of this noteworthy change in values due to the internet in a relatively short period are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR] more...

This article considers how the social-news and community site Reddit.com has become a hub for anti-feminist activism. Examining two recent cases of what are defined as “toxic technocultures” (#Gamergate and The Fappening), this work describes how Reddit’s design, algorithm, and platform politics implicitly support these kinds of cultures. In particular, this piece focuses on the ways in which Reddit’s karma point system, aggregation of material across subreddits, ease of subreddit and user account creation, governance structure, and policies around offensive content serve to provide fertile ground for anti-feminist and misogynistic activism. The ways in which these events and communities reflect certain problematic aspects of geek masculinity are also considered. This research is informed by the results of a long-term participant-observation and ethnographic study into Reddit’s culture and community and is grounded in actor-network theory. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR] more...

The e-character education (e-CE) approach refers to systems of ethics education that pertain specifically to cyberspace. This exploratory study used a survey to collect 2495 teachers’ responses regarding virtues important to e-CE. Furthermore, in order to identify the teaching concerns associated with these most important virtues, this study used two focus groups that involved interviews with 16 teachers and Internet experts, as well as a content analysis of 92 posts from 72 teachers in an online course regarding ethical behavior in the context of Internet activity. The results of this study show that e-CE virtues considered important by teachers include law abidance, respect, self-discipline and sharing. Teaching-related concerns of these virtues have also been discussed. The results serve as a foundation and guide for the promotion of e-CE curriculum development and implementation. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER] more...

This article systematically reviews the ethical and legal challenges as well as benefits of online counselling. We address issues such as accessibility, anonymity, technology, asynchronous communication, online security, informed consent, and the challenges of licensure, liability, and regulation within the profession of online counselling. Current gaps in the empirical literature and legislation about online counselling and considerations for future research, practice and policy implications are also highlighted. The literature suggests that online counselling plays an important role in providing an alternative service delivery model that overcomes some of the barriers to traditional face-to-face counselling services. However, the authors conclude that there remains a lack of empirical evidence and many unanswered questions about the effectiveness of online mental health interventions and the appropriateness of online counselling for diverse populations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR] more...

This study investigates the ethical attitude and computer and Internet use behavior of upper secondary students. It examines their intentions to use computers and Internet observing information ethics based on PAPA issues (privacy, accuracy, property, and accessibility). The theory of reasoned action (TRA) is used as a ground concept to propose a research model that explores attitudinal factors affecting behavioral intention, and behavioral intention, in turn influences actual behavior. To validate the model, surveyed data were collected from 1108 high school students in Lampang, Thailand. Confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) was used to analyze the trustworthiness of the measurement model and structural equation modeling (SEM) was employed to test the TRA in the students' information ethics context. The results showed that the model was a good fit with the data. Findings also revealed that attitude and subjective norms had positive relationships with students' intention. Among the observed PAPA variables, however, privacy was found to have very low impact on attitude while accuracy, property, and accessibility were found rather high. It is recommended that future studies should be made and that it is essential to educate students on the matter of information ethics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR] more...

What is known and objective The 'Darknet' ('dark web') has emerged as a means by which illegal drug buys and deliveries can be arranged with apparent anonymity and impunity. Healthcare providers should be aware of this growing source of illicit drugs. Comment The 'Darknet' refers to networks isolated from the Internet that cannot be accessed via conventional search engines. They require special software that is protected by special encryption. The initial legitimate use of a 'Darknet' to conceal personal information against misuse or political reprisal is being exploited to conceal the identity of buyers and sellers in illegal drug transactions. Instructions on how to obtain access to the 'Darknet' are readily available on conventional Internet web pages. What is new and conclusion The 'Darknet' has changed the paradigm of illegal drug importation and distribution by providing a difficult-to-trace transaction, and delivery via legitimate couriers directly to the home. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR] more...

Scholars have suggested that the delineation of a field’s “big” questions is critical for its cohesive and practical intellectual growth. Instilling a habitual practice of focusing inquiries on fundamental questions is particularly warranted for fledgling areas of research. Currently, while there is already a rich body of literature that addresses administrative, computer, information, and cyber ethics, only a limited number of writings discuss ethical problems specifically within the e-government context. It can be argued that the e-government condition introduces a distinctive type of ethical problems; questions regarding which have yet to be properly framed. This article suggests five critical questions of e-government ethics at the organizational level that justify notable academic attention. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER] more...

The technical details of Internet architecture affect social debates about privacy and autonomy, intellectual property, cybersecurity, and the basic performance and reliability of Internet services. This paper explores one method for practicing anticipatory ethics in order to understand how a new infrastructure for the Internet might impact these social debates. This paper systematically examines values expressed by an Internet architecture engineering team-the Named Data Networking project-based on data gathered from publications and internal documents. Networking engineers making technical choices also weigh non-technical values when working on Internet infrastructure. Analysis of the team's documents reveals both values invoked in response to technical constraints and possibilities, such as efficiency and dynamism, as well as values, including privacy, security and anonymity, which stem from a concern for personal liberties. More peripheral communitarian values espoused by the engineers include democratization and trust. The paper considers the contextual and social origins of these values, and then uses them as a method of practicing anticipatory ethics: considering the impact such priorities may have on a future Internet. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR] more...

This paper attempts to give an insight into emerging ethical issues due to the increased usage of the Internet in our lives. We discuss three main theoretical approaches relating to the ethics involved in the information technology (IT) era: first, the use of IT as a tool; second, the use of social constructivist methods; and third, the approach of phenomenologists. Certain aspects of ethics and IT have been discussed based on a phenomenological approach and moral development. Further, ethical issues related to social networking sites are discussed. A plausible way to make the virtual world ethically responsive is collective responsibility which proposes that society has the power to influence but not control behavior in the virtual world. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR] more...

Online media misinforming society and the social acceptance of this phenomenon. This article is an attempt to research the phenomenon of institutionalized lying, which in the author's opinion is the practice of websites aiming to maximize the readership of their content to the detriment of the fairness and objectivity. First, an introduction to the basic concepts of media ethics and their source in general ethics will be presented. Then, a description of the changes which have taken place in the media over the past several years will be shown in order to identify potential sources of the problem and there is a review of opinions available on the Internet. The next step was to examine sample content published by selected websites, along with descriptions of the techniques and methods used by publishers that may be ethically questionable, and can be described as a lie. At the end there is an attempt to investigate the level of knowledge about this treatment and its acceptance by the Internet community as a process of institutionalized lying. The author also provides some ideas how to solve this problem. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR] more...

Copyright of Veritas is the property of EDIPUCRS - Editora Universitaria da PUCRS and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.) more...

Based on an ethnography with men that use digital media in search of same sex partners in São Paulo, Brazil, this paper discusses what motivates their use of technological platforms. It also employs sociological and historical elements to reflect upon the social aspects of desire that fuel this search and the new visibility regime in which these men live. Finally, it analyses the moral, symbolic and material restrictions that mold an economy of desire demanding their discretion and secrecy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR] more...

Internet, sex and secret are a triad that launches many methodological and ethical challenges for those who conduct researches in the digital media field requiring reinvention of already consolidated techniques. On Ashley Madison website, which is oriented to promote dates between married people, I became immersed in the dynamics of these relations in which the tension among new communication technologies, masculinities, conjugalities and affections market led me to discuss the researcher's place and role as interlocutor and confident; being aware of the emotional dimension of media proved to be a crucial factor on the production of discourse and of the evident textualization of oneself. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR] more...

The article focuses on the online personal branding of a nurse leader. Topics discussed include communication guidelines for e-mail etiquette including the use of appropriate signature, the of formal salutations and greetings when it is needed, and the use of subject lines to properly organize sent e-mail and to guide the recipient. more...

This paper argues that trustworthiness is an epistemic virtue that promotes objectivity. I show that untrustworthy imposture can be an arrogant act of privilege that silences marginalized voices. But, as epistemologists of ignorance have shown, sometimes trickery and the betrayal of epistemic norms are important resistance strategies. This raises the question: when is betrayal of trust epistemically virtuous? After establishing that trust is central to objectivity, I argue for the following answer: a betrayal is epistemically vicious when it strengthens or promotes oppressive, exclusive networks of trust, and a betrayal is epistemically virtuous when it expands trust networks to involve the oppressed. These criteria correctly account for both the epistemic vice of a recent case of Internet imposture and the epistemic virtue of resistant tricksters. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR] more...

Customer is the main hero of online trade game, so there are online marketing communications to be involved to use the conception of social-ethic marketing. Customization and personification influences not only marketing orientation, but the methodology, instruments and online marketing communications approaches. The problem is that in the ethical norms of trade enterprises, it is not considered the customers' interest to the protection of their privacy and imposes online marketing applications. The author conducted analysis of legislative regulation of Digital Marketing Communications and Online Behavioural Advertising. This paper discusses the application of scientific approaches to the online marketing communications in the companies' trade, based on the concept of social and ethical marketing. Detected examples of ambiguous consumer perception of online marketing and communication applications, led to proposition of solution: the developers of online marketing communications and applications software systems, developers must balance the need to ensure the privacy of consumers and the needs of enterprises of trade, taking into account both the needs of the consumers, the freedom of choice and social benefits. The author offers the model of trade business cooperation with customers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR] more...

The current generation of adolescents, who are generally described as digital natives, have greater access to and are greater consumers of information than previous generations. However, adolescents are notably at-risk when they are confronted with ethical decisions since they may lack the necessary knowledge and experiences to discern and make the right decisions. This study investigated how the demographic variables of gender and socio-economic status (SES) influence the internet ethics of 825 Secondary 2 (Grade 8) students aged 11 to 16 in Hong Kong. Three unethical behaviours, namely, unauthorised acts (UNAC), internet stickiness (INST), and plagiarism (PLAG) were examined. Results revealed that male students tended to engage in more unethical behaviours than did female students. Also, students from low SES families tended to behave more unethically than did students from high SES families. Implications for educators and researchers are discussed with reference to the four component model of moral behaviour, which has been widely used to articulate internal psychological processes including moral sensitivity, moral judgement, moral motivation, and implementation that are commonly found in all moral acts. [Copyright &y& Elsevier] more...

This article responds to several recent moral (as contrasted with legal) evaluations of cyber conflict appearing during the past several years. The principal (but not exclusive) focus is on articles recently published in this journal. Including those collected in a recent special issue of JME (12:1/January 2013), guest edited by Bradley J. Strawser. The author distinguishes moral from legal issues in cyber conflict under current international law, and examines claims (like those of cyber expert, Randall Dipert) that neither international law nor just war tradition is any longer sufficient to govern the utterly unique objects and events taking place within a peculiar sort of domain that knows no boundaries, and where conventional constraints (like transparency and accountability) are wholly absent. Other issues covered include recent cyber conflicts, and whether the sort of harm suffered there, or likely to be inflicted during a broader cyberattack (including that resulting from long-term espionage and sabotage) would ever justify the use of conventional force in retaliation. While the JME special issue is not found to break any substantially new ground, taken in a wider context it charts the substantial progress that ethicists, moral philosophers and political theorists have made in catching up with the substantial legal analysis that have attended the advent of serious acts of malfeasance in the cyber domain during the past decade. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR] more...

The proposal presented below constitutes a Model of User Profile making use of the budgets of the Computing Ethics, and whose objectives are to identify leaders within organizations, and enhance a strong organizational culture. The Model is based on the Model of argument subject, the Analytical and the Theory of the needs. It is applicable to any entity to develop the Social Engineering. The implementation involves Computing professionals, Psychologists, Sociologists and Information's Science. It is a revolutionary alternative and developer which makes it possible take decisions that contribute to increasing the sense of belonging and identification of the worker with the institution. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR] more...

According to Herman and Chomsky's "propaganda model", the information conveyed by the news media is largely determined, both with regard to the agenda-setting and the framing of the news, by the "persuasion industries". Unlike those media, the Internet offers, at least for now, the possibility that different, alternative voices of citizens and civic and non-governmental organizations are freely heard. At the same time, the Internet challenges the monopoly of traditional news media to offer relevant, credible information. This possibility of citizens and organizations to use Internet to oppose to propaganda is, probably, one of the causes of the current crisis of journalism. The survival of journalism to this crisis lies not in forgetting its ethics but rather in the systematic and consistent reaffirmation of that ethics. Thus, ethics reveals itself as a necessary condition, even if not a sufficient one, to the pragmatic success of journalism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR] more...

While emerging research illuminates how youth engage with digital media, relatively little attention has been given to moral and ethical issues. Drawing on interviews with 61 teens and young adults, we explored the extent to which youth’s approaches to online life include moral or ethical considerations. We report the prevalence of three ways of thinking about use of social networks, massive multiplayer games, Wikipedia, and downloading. We found that individualistic thinking (focusing on consequences for oneself) dominated participants’ thinking; moral thinking (considering known others) was somewhat prevalent; and ethical thinking (acknowledging unknown others and communities) was least prevalent. We explore the targets and triggers of these approaches to online life, discuss ethical lapses observed, and consider theoretical and practical implications. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER] more...

Copyright of Communicatio Socialis is the property of Nomos Verlagsgesellschaft mbH & Co. KG and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.) more...

Copyright of Communicatio Socialis is the property of Nomos Verlagsgesellschaft mbH & Co. KG and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.) more...

Copyright of Communicatio Socialis is the property of Nomos Verlagsgesellschaft mbH & Co. KG and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.) more...

In this article we draw upon data from a large-scale mixed methods investigation of clients of commercial sex workers in Canada to illustrate the potential value that understanding and integrating computer and network technology has for enhancing access to, and participation from, marginalized and stigmatized populations. In particular, we present qualitative data from analysis of our research field notes as well as an analysis of quantitative data from response monitoring and feedback features built into the actual data collection process to help support our argument that, for some populations, network technology–based recruitment strategies should be recognized as the preferred recruitment option. In addition, we discuss the potential utility and application of viral solicitation, a newly emerging computer network-based nonprobability technique, for contacting and securing the participation of stigmatized and marginalized research participants. Our recruitment of sex buyers through web-based listserves was the most successful participant solicitation strategy, generating 63.18% (n = 544) of our survey respondents. Conventional recruitment (advertising in print-based media and in adult-oriented businesses) generated few participants (2.90%, n = 25). Viral solicitation acted as an important low-cost supplemental means of recruitment, generating a further 164 survey participants (19.05% of survey participants). [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER] more...

This article presents theory and research forming the framework of a graduate course in cyberethics education. The course content includes theory and research on the psychology of the Internet, moral development, and character education. Discussion includes application of these constructs to issues such as empathy, privacy, and other issues as they appear in cyberspace. Core virtues and analyses through ethical theories provide the moral framework for the course and ground it in character education as it has emerged from the physical world. I also briefly present the course curriculum prompting teacher's lesson plans for teaching cyberethics. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER] more...