RESUMÉ OF THE PROJECT
Today, many people move daily and as a matter of course in digital social spaces. Children and young people in particular maintain friendships via digital social networks or chats and obtain much of their information about the world from the Internet. In the process, social, political and societal processes in the real and virtual worlds interpenetrate and influence each other, whereby the values and norms of the real world are often not applied to virtual social systems or are not applicable. For socially and educationally disadvantaged young people in particular, this digital living world is a very special challenge. Dealing with each other and with conflicts is an expression of an ethical attitude.
In addition, the Internet’s low publication threshold and anonymity make it an ideal breeding ground for the unregulated spread of gossip and rumors, slander and lies, conspiracy theories and delusions. This makes young people feel insecure, especially if they are not conveyed values from.
Furthermore, uncertainty about the credibility of media content can be observed. This is also shown by a recent youth study by “Safer Internet” on rumors on the Internet. According to this study, young people do use social networks as their main source of up-to-date information, but they tend to rate them as untrustworthy (86%). At the same time, the American study “Most Students Don’t Know When News Is Fake” shows that numerous students are unable to identify well-founded news. Instead of paying attention to sources, they mainly trusted detailed texts and picture evidence. They also could not justify why they should be critical or suspicious of certain content. Neither in the curricula nor in the training of professionals in child and youth welfare the key competence Digital Ethics can be found, even if there are isolated learning ideas. „ETHICS” meets this need with two main goals: in a first step, to work out topics of Digital Ethics relevant to use and to use a clear set of rules written in a language suitable for young people. In the second step, a card game was developed that supports the reflection of adolescents and promotes the internalization of the topics of Digital Ethics. The content of the card game as well as background information on Digital Ethics will be made available both as part of an Internet platform and via a web-based app. In this way, the goal of integrating the discussion on the topic into the context of social work is achieved.
The target groups of the project are all children and young people , youth workers, teachers, stakeholders and ministries. It is planned to reach approximately 650,000 people through the various activities and multiplier events. There are little sound learning materials aimed at enabling children to lead a self-determined digital life. Therefore, a qualification offer to promote ethical-digital competencies with a philosophical approach is the main outcome of “ETHICS”.