Indian Youth Inclination towards Unethical Practices in the use of Information and Communication Technology

The Information and Communication Technology has deepened its roots into our lifestyles and become an indispensable power churning machismo, giving one the freedom to do whatever one wills to, at the click of a button. However, most of this freedom leads one to dilemmas, where he/she may find a thin difference between right and wrong. The purpose of this study was to explore and understand the present day youth’s inclination towards unethical practices in the ICT Industry. In more specific, their inclination to adopt malpractices, such as plagiarism, digital piracy and social network abuse, have been empirically explored. Based on the survey of 123 undergraduate students, independent sample t-test and simple regression analysis were employed to analyze the empirical data. The findings suggest that these easily available user friendly technologies, which the present day youth is deeply familiar with, also lead to misuse or unethical practices. Demographic variables like gender and education and psychological variables like self-concept clarity too seem to impact their ethical/unethical behaviour. It was expected that the findings would contribute meaningfully towards framing guidelines and practices for developing a better ethical environment and character in youth.