Students' Digital Ethics Profile in the Era of Disruption: An Overview from the Internet Use at Risk in Surakarta City, Indonesia

Abstract

Abstract— This study aims to reveal students' profile of digital ethics in Surakarta City, Indonesia. Current technological trends generate significant implications for the technological digitalizations to all parts of human lives. Information and Communication Technology (ICT) is increasingly integrated in society. This condition at least triggers the emergence of an era of disruption due to changes in the order and lifestyle of the younger generation who prefer the use of various digital technologies in their daily life activities. In recent years, a lot of discussion about the risks and opportunities of digital technology on teenagers have been many found. From several studies conclude that the highest students' communication activities have been majorly done through online. Internet at risk use engages students’ live activities, among others, expressing personal data, bullying, hoaxes, and hate speech to accessing the pornographic contents. Digital ethics is one of the components in digital citizenship from which the users must adhere to. Netiquette, a hybrid word combining "network" and "etiquette," essentially referring to the social code of the Internet. As netiquette includes how we communicate, treat others, describe and protect ourselves online related to ethical issues. This study was designed with a quantitative-descriptive research model that applies the survey method. The survey was conducted in three schools, each of which was the high school, the state vocational school and private vocational high school in the Surakarta residency area. The study subjects involved as many as 210 students, from ages 15 to 17 years participating in the survey. The questionnaire consisted of 16 statements applying Likert's point of scale one to five. The results showed that students’ digital ethics with having less category had the highest percentage of 35.23%. While those with enough category reached 32.85% and those with good category was 31.90%. One of the effective ways to strengthening students' digital ethics can be realized through humanistic literacy which is integrated into Civics Education subject at schools.