Social Impacts defined as “the effects on people and communities that happen as a result of an action, activity, project, programme or policy.”

• Health
• Gender discrimination
• poverty
• Corruption
• Education

Ethics is defined as “moral principles that govern a person’s behaviour or the conducting of an activity.”

In terms of Computer Science Ethics topics may include

• Hacking
• Data protection and privacy
• Responsibility for failed hardware

In terms of the IB Syllabus much of the emphasis is put on

• Tagging prisoners
• Surveillance
• CCTV
• Improved safety systems

As students need to discuss a topic you need to be able to discuss the pros and cons before arriving at a sensible conclusion

Tagging Prisoners

Pros

• Allows prisoners to be tracked at all times
• Allows less dangerous prisoners the freedom of movement whilst still being monitored
• Reduces numbers of prisoners held in prisons

Cons

Can be hacked which could result in losing tracking details

• Details could be sold to make money
• Loss of freedom in terms of being tracked everywhere they go

Surveillance

Pros

• As everyone is being monitored it could provide a safer society
• If it was a government initiative we would hope it would be used Ethically
• Could be used as evidence in court cases

Cons

• The data collected could be sold off
• Could be used to monitor for the wrong purposes
• People loose their privacy

Improved Safety Systems

A driverless car which should provide improved safety resulted in a fatality.

Who is responsible?

Could this have been avoided by having a human operating the vehicle