THE STUDENTS EXPERIENCES OF ETHICS IN ONLINE SYSTEMS: A Phenomenological Study

Cyber ethics is the philosophical study of ethics pertaining to computer networks encompassing users behavior, what networked computers are programmed to do, and how this affects the individuals and the society. This study aimed to investigate the students experiences of ethics in cyber systems.In the present study, the researchers conducted in-depth, semi-structured interviews in a sample of students in JahromUniversity of Medical Sciences between November 2012 and February 2013. The interviews focused on the students experiences of online ethics. Content analysis techniques were used to code and analyze the study data.The data were gathered from 25 interviews and 5 focused groups. The extracted codes were classified into two categories of positive and negativeimplications. The main themes of the study included ethicalimplications, cyber curiosity, limitation, virtual liberty, and development of ethics in the cyber system. Considering the importance ofethicsin thevirtual systems, it is necessary to train the studentsregardingthe optimalutilizationof thecyber space. Also, the students should be trained regarding the useof technology invarious scientific fields.