PrepTest 145, Section 2, Question 8
Widespread use of the Internet has led to(73 more words not shown)
Which one of the following(12 more words not shown)
- AEducation about the(14 more words not shown)
- BWhen new technologies(15 more words not shown)
- CThe more educated(22 more words not shown)
- DPeople feel morally(13 more words not shown)
- EPeople who harm(19 more words not shown)
Reading the argument
Would a lesson change how people behave online?
The passage offers a plausible account of the problem. Seeing only a username can make it easier to forget there's a person on the other end. Someone might post a cruel comment they would never say to that person's face. The impersonal setting could weaken the feeling that ordinary moral limits apply.
But recognizing that problem doesn't establish that education will fix it. Knowing what we ought to do and doing it are different. Someone could understand a personal-finance lesson and still order an expensive delivery because it feels good in the moment. Likewise, a person might know an online action is wrong and still do it.
What we’re looking for
The recommendation needs a reason to think teaching reaches the problem the author identified. For this principle question, I'd look for a connection between ethical education and a stronger sense of moral responsibility when using the Internet.
Working the answers
- ACorrect
Education about a tool's ethical use increases the user's sense of moral responsibility. Apply that to the Internet: teaching its ethical use would strengthen the very feeling the author says is weakened online. That gives a reason to recommend the education.
A doesn't promise perfect behavior or the elimination of Internet crime. It establishes a relevant benefit of the proposed response, which is enough to help justify taking those steps.
- B
Formulating guidelines and educating people are different actions. We might already have the relevant ethical rules and need people to take them seriously. B recommends creating rules for new technology, but it doesn't explain why teaching Internet ethics would improve the situation described.
- C
This says education increases how much harm people can do. That is no support for the recommendation and could create another concern about it. Be precise: greater ability to cause harm doesn't necessarily mean people will cause more harm. Either way, C supplies no reason to expect the helpful effect we need.
- D
This limits the kinds of actions people feel morally constrained from doing. It doesn't tell us whether ethical education increases those constraints. Even if harm is required for someone to feel a moral limit, we still don't know whether a class would make online users feel that limit more strongly.
- E
This concerns how responsible people actually are for harm done online compared with harm done in person. The argument concerns their reduced feeling of responsibility and whether education could address it. We could judge online harm equally blameworthy while education did nothing to change behavior. E doesn't connect the proposed teaching to the problem.
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