Cyberethics and internet behaviour of Malaysian primary education students

Abstract

This paper investigates the cyberethics and internet behavior of Malaysian primary education students. Based on Theory of Planned Behavior and PAPA framework, we develop an integrated research framework to explore the cyberethics issues that lead students to internet behavior. The framework posits that four cyberethics variables, that is intellectual property, accuracy, privacy and accessibility affect attitude; attitude, in turn affects behavioral intention, and behavioral intention, in turn affects actual behavior. In order to test the framework, twenty nine measurement items were developed and empirically analyzed by correlation and regression analyses with data from 236 primary school students. The results showed that two cyberethics variables, namely intellectual property and accuracy affected attitude towards using internet, and also influenced the behavioral intention and actual behavior in using internet. It was therefore recommended that teachers are to be trained on how to educate cyber responsibilities in order to provide cyberethics foundation to students.