Poll Sees Wide O.C. Divide on Cyber-Morals

When it comes to the Internet, where electronic anonymity allows people to escape many social rules, Orange County residents are of mixed minds about what’s right and what’s wrong, according to a new poll.

The survey of 600 adults conducted for The Times Orange County Edition found younger residents and men far more forgiving of controversial computer practices--such as electronically copying music or software without paying for it--than are older residents and women.

The results underscore a point widely discussed by experts: that people are still making up their minds about these new ethical issues. Dramatic growth of the Internet has given people the tools to communicate instantly and anonymously with millions, distancing their words and actions from the harm they might cause.

“When you’re doing things on the Internet, it just doesn’t seem as harmful. There’s a more casual attitude,” said Bonnie Biase, a 51-year-old Laguna Niguel resident and minister who used to participate in online Bible discussions, only to be turned off by offensive interlopers.

“I couldn’t believe the stuff that was going on while people were trying to carry on a very heartfelt study about their faith,” Biase said. “Someone would just come in and spew this profanity and hate talk.”

The same kinds of social and physical pressures that discourage people from throwing a rock through a neighbor’s window have yet to be developed for the online world, where a person can hide behind a veil of anonymity, according to researchers in communications and computers.

The computer and media industries, which stand to lose the most through sharing of software and content over the Internet, have long recognized a need to teach young people--in many ways the most active users of computers--the need for an ethical code in cyberspace.

Since the early 1990s, the Software & Information Industry Assn. has been trying to discourage youngsters from illegally copying members’ wares. In 1992, the organization produced the eight-minute rap video “Don’t Copy That Floppy” aimed at elementary school children.

The Recording Industry Assn. of America, which represents the record companies and artists, has distributed copies of its Soundbyting anti-piracy campaign to more than 300 universities and colleges. The challenge is to persuade music listeners--already accustomed to copying cassette tapes for friends--that e-mailing a song is the equivalent of shoplifting.

Even Web developers are getting fed up with copyright violations on the same Internet that has made that infringement so easy. Last year, tens of thousands of Web developers protested the rampant theft of site coding by turning their pages a dull gray in what has become an annual demonstration called Grey Day.

But what the industries see as theft, many--especially men and young adults--view as harmless, The Times poll found.

Overall, one out of four responding to the poll said it is acceptable to copy computer software without paying for it. And nearly one in three said using computers to trade copyrighted music or computer games is acceptable.

“I don’t think that it would be right to copy it and then sell it,” said Gary Pike, 43, a Fullerton resident. “But to take if off the Internet and use it for yourself, for your own enjoyment, I don’t see anything wrong with that.”

Respondents 18 to 34 were more than twice as likely as those older than 55 to accept the practice of trading copyrighted music or computer games over the Internet or copying software without paying for it.

And while 60% of the younger group found it always or sometimes acceptable to use an employer’s computer to send personal e-mail or surf the net, only 36% of those in the older group did so.

“If you’re at work, you’re there to work,” said Kirk McCard, 34, an Anaheim resident. “If you have your employer’s permission, that would be great, but other than that, that’s what your home computer is for.”

The poll found a similar split between men and women. While 30% of men, for example, said it is always or sometimes acceptable to misrepresent oneself on the Internet, only 19% of women agreed.

But while the survey showed disparities between men and women, young and old, it is unclear that those variables are the relevant ones when it comes to ethics and technology, said Debra Satz, director of the Ethics in Society program at Stanford University.

Satz pointed out that men and younger people may have more experience with computers and the Internet and “maybe computer users in general are more likely to think that certain kinds of transgressing of copyright are acceptable.”

The pattern of younger people and men being more tolerant of potential transgressions, however, was mirrored in other aspects of The Times’ survey, including greater acceptance of some kinds of academic dishonesty, cheating on one’s income taxes and claiming lunch with a friend as a business expense.

The vast majority of those surveyed, more than nine out of 10, said they believe that there are unethical things people would do online that they would not do in person or over the telephone.

“If you go into a chat room, people are more likely to be free with what they’re saying because there are no consequences,” McCard said. “There are no repercussions unless someone can track you down, which is highly unlikely.”

Not only are people more likely to say things that they would not otherwise say, but Biase and others believe that they are more likely to express their true feelings because of their anonymity online.

Experts say the unsettled ethical landscape is no surprise. With every new technology, people have had to socialize themselves on the way to use it properly.

While the tools are new, the issues themselves may not be. Instead of opening new avenues for mischief, computers and the Internet have simply widened existing ones.

“If you start thinking about the technology, you’re struck by the uniqueness because nothing like computers have quite existed before. But if you start with the ethics, you’re struck by the similarity,” said Deborah Johnson, professor of philosophy at Georgia Tech University. “The fundamental issues are the same: privacy, property, responsibility, distribution of power and access.”

Rudeness over electronic mail and during online chat sessions has spawned a flurry of Internet behavior rules dubbed netiquette. But every day thousands of people are introduced to the Internet for the first time, a growth that is expected to continue for at least a decade as use of computer networks spread, and these new Netizens have to be indoctrinated in the rules of the road, a process that could take a generation.

“For the most part, people have to just learn by experience, unfortunately,” Johnson said. “I’m sort of cynical about how much you can do.”

In order for a code of conduct to gain widespread acceptance, society needs to make the connection between an ethical breach and the negative consequences, a task that the Internet’s anonymity makes extremely difficult.

Johnson points to computer cracking, where people try to break into a computer network, has existed for more than 20 years, but it wasn’t until hackers were sent to prison that it became known as something more sinister than a hobby.

“You’ve heard story after story about the kids doing things in their rooms by themselves and parents aren’t asking because they can’t understand what they could be doing,” Johnson said. “The kids are learning about computers before their parents, and so the ethics get lost.”

ABOUT THE POLL

* The poll was conducted by Baldassare Associates for the Orange County Edition of The Times. The random telephone survey of 600 Orange County adults was conducted Oct. 13 through 17. The margin of error for the total sample is plus or minus 4 percentage points at the 95% confidence level. Statistically, this means there is a 95% chance that the results would fall inside that range if every adult resident in Orange County were interviewed. For subgroups the margin of error is larger.

(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX / INFOGRAPHIC)

GRAPPLING WITH ETHICS ONLINE

Many Orange County residents, particularly men and young adults, find acceptable some practices that are questioned by ethicists and companies.

Q: Is it always/sometimes acceptable to:

A: Using an employer’s computer to surf the Internet or send personal e-mail

B: Tralding copyrighted music or computer games on the Internet

C: Copying computer software without paying for it

D: Misrepresenting one’s self in an on-line chat room, message board, or through e-mail

E: Downloading term-papers from the Internet

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O.C. 18-34 35-54 55+ Men Women A 52% 60% 54% 36% 61% 41% B 29 42 24 16 36 20 C 25 34 25 12 33 17 D 24 38 20 9 30 19 E 20 29 18 9 24 16

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