Legal & Ethical

Legal problems such as the ones below need to be protected.

·         Web addiction - this is when public members get addicted to internet browsing, and can’t leave the computer. Internet can be interesting but being addicted to it is another level. It can also affect the healthiness of the user.

·         Copyright & Plagiarism - is a problem mainly of school children copying and pasting things off the internet such as information for work. Most teachers don’t recognize that the child has copied, but some can get caught and get punished for it, especially if it happens on coursework. Copyright and plagiarism can be most important thing not to do when you need work. The Copyright symbol (©) means that the work is owned by someone else. If you want the work you need to ask for permission before you can use it. If you do have the work without permission then this turns into Plagiarism. Also with the amount of ICT these days it makes it easier for people to copy, this is where the Data Protection Act comes in.

·         Snooping - is a problem when public people view information off the internet without permission. This is not allowed because it can lead to plagiarism this can be an effect of copying work.

Law Acts on the community.

•  Unequal access happens on the internet, particularly on every site you visit, for example, if you visit a site and you sign up and it says you have to be a certain age. That’s not getting information. It’s making the site more suitable for you and also making the site for a younger audience. Let’s say EBay for example. This asks for your age so that it can stop you viewing unsuitable things to your age. This is a useful tool because parents can also sign up there children for it, this is known as what is called “Parental Control”. This is a useful tool.
  
  
  Also other countries have unequal access to some websites in different countries, because they don’t want people stealing their information.

·     Data Protection Act – This is an act in law which can keep us safe on the internet to a certain degree. This is a useful act because some people misuse the internet.

·     Privacy of information – This means that information of a company is kept safe, and should have privacy reasons for why people should access the files. They also need to know who touches the information as it can be very important to a company.

·     Computer Misuse Act – This act stops people playing around on computer doing things they really shouldn’t be, for example in schools and businesses they block the control panel to the students and only let administrator’s access it, this is good because students can get information and plant viruses into the computer

Sustainability

Sustainability is where people want to keep a good effort up on the community when dealing with ICT to get younger people into the knowledge of ICT and make the community a better place. Also changing the ways we do to keep the community going. This is an example of a website which is in the sustainability act http://www.btplc.com/responsiblebusiness/supportingourcommunities/learningandskills/ BT are trying to make the world a better place with their responsibilities on their website. They are also trying to save energy to the community.

Teleworking

Teleworking is a good way to work at home, people that live far away from work places can be at home and work. However there can be a load of disadvantages such as if you work at home you could get distracted, it would be hard to separate personal life from work. Also if people get distracted less work that’s been done at home people need to be trusted to do teleworking, otherwise employees can be doing very little work at home. Also if there is bad weather then they can still work, and being a teleworking the company doesn’t have to spend so much money on offices, and money on lighting and heating. However the teleworker has to spend that money on his home with the lights and heating. On the good side, it may tempt more workers to be a teleworker when it involves working at home, because it is then more suitable for those people that struggle to get to work and it could be of loads of different reasons why people cant get to work, such as, disability, live far away, or even because they cant drive. So because of teleworking more people are interested in doing this sort of job. But for this job it involves trust and responsibility.  

How IT has changed Society

IT (Information technology) has changed a variety of things, that’s including Education, Shopping, Banking and much more. Communities and area’s can do a whole lot more due to the impact of IT.  Advantages of this are that people can pick suitable times of for what they want to do. But the disadvantages are that people are losing jobs because of machines and due to factory closures. The world is becoming a better place to live, but with this much that you can do online people are getting lazy which leads to another disadvantage.  I’d say education is the one of the best things that has happened since IT has arrived, because students that struggle to get to school or are disabled can interact with lessons at home by using VLE (Virtual Learning Environment) from their computer. Shopping is also another useful one because you can compare prices very easily and get the right products that you want by searching it on the site instead of walking around the shelves in the supermarket. So these every day things can be done with just a computer. And every day things like this online is increasing rapidly. But the downside that banks and shops are closing because they can be ordered online and that could be a real down for people that don’t use online to shop or bank.

Gaming/Facebook – Advantages and Disadvantages

Facebook has had a huge impact on society as millions of people around the world log onto Facebook and play games everyday. People use Facebook to communicate and share photos and videos to people that live far away, and just to have a general talk to their friends. The advantages of Facebook are that you can talk to friends and family and share photos and videos to them around the world. The disadvantages are that people get bullied and post nasty comments on other peoples walls. Also Facebook is a big danger to mainly girls because they can get asked to meet up with strangers that are also on Facebook.

Gaming is one of the most popular things in the world; life would be boring if we didn’t have games consoles. But the disadvantages are that people get bullied when gaming with other people. People that play online get bullied out of games. And the advantages are that friends can play with friends and not allow any other people around the world play with them.  

How IT can change an individuals life.

Technology isn’t just for the young ones; technology can be used for the old ones too. This is useful because for people that live alone can get in touch with their relatives using technology such as a mobile phone. OAPS assume that when there old they should live in a carers home, but since the arrival of technology OAPS can stay at their home and keep in contact with their family from where they are sitting. Being an individual this has a big impact and benefits because it is now easier for people to get in touch with their relatives. This just shows how much you can extend the use of technology in these modern days.  Also skype can be useful not just to talk to relatives down the road, but also talk to relatives all away around the world. And Sky TV can help them record programmes that they want to watch at another time. So being an individual like this can help out OAPS a lot and not feel left out on anything. They can also shop online so they don’t need to go to the super market for food; this is useful for disabled individuals as well.

A Brief Introduction

My name is Dan Dunn, I’m 16 and I’m currently a student at Halesowen College on First Diploma Level 2 ICT. I will be making Blogs on the subject of ‘How ICT has impacted on Society’ and I will be discussing issues of ethical and legal aspects with society. In this Blog I hope to inform you about how lives can change due to the amount of technology that is out there today, and how people benefit the usage of ICT.