Measuring Romanian Students’ Attitude towards the Ethical Use of Social Networks

Abstract

The aim of this study is to assess students’ ethical attitudes towards social networks (SNs) in order to identify ethical norms and principles, which should be implemented in universities. A self-reported survey was conducted on 583 Bachelor and Master students majoring in different domains in a Romanian university. The results revealed that students in higher education express an overall positive attitude towards the ethical use of SNs, taking seriously various ethical concerns such as the use of appropriate language, the selection of the content they share, and copywriting. Students also expressed a positive attitude towards the use of emoticons in their SNs communications. Significant differences were detected between different groups of students according to their gender, age, and specialization. The model of ethical attitudes provides a new perspective on how students and teachers know and respect the rules of using social networks in the academic environment.