Ethical, Legal & Impacts
Evaluating how our digital footprint and rapid technological advancement affect society, the planet, and the law.
Part 1: Societal Impacts (8-Mark Essays)
1. Ethical & Cultural Issues
Understand the Digital Divide, Planned Obsolescence, the pressure of Globalisation, and the moral consequence of AI replacing human employment.
Balance Stakeholders2. Environmental & Privacy
Evaluate the massive carbon footprint of data centres, the toxic reality of structural E-Waste, and the dangers of facial recognition surveillance.
Calculate FootprintPart 2: The Law & Licences
3. Computer Science Legislation
Learn the strict compliance steps for the Data Protection Act (DPA 2018), the criminal hacking offences of the CMA 1990, and the piracy protections of the CDPA 1988.
Bang the Gavel4. Software Licences
Compare the community-driven modifications of Open Source software against the legally restricted, compiled security of Proprietary software.
Pick your LicenceWritten Exam Scenario (AO2/AO3)
"A local council is replacing its human librarians with an advanced AI chatbot system and self-service checkout kiosks. Discuss the positive and negative ethical and cultural impacts of this decision on the local community citizens and the council workers." (8 marks)
Ethical - Job Losses: Automating the roles will directly result in unemployment for human librarians, impacting their personal livelihoods and families.
Ethical - Lack of Empathy: AI chatbots cannot provide genuine human empathy or nuanced understanding, potentially failing vulnerable users who need delicate assistance.
Cultural - Digital Divide: Elderly or poorer citizens who lack smartphone access or digital literacy may struggle to interact with the new high-tech kiosks, isolating them further from public services.
Cultural - Loss of Community Hub: The library often serves as a social and cultural hub. Removing human interaction degrades the community spirit and social cohesion of the town.