Getting Involved: Perspectives on the Use of True Projects as Tools for Developing Ethical Thinking in Computer Science Students

This article describes a unique, educational project within the field of ethics and computers that was implemented in the undergraduate study of computer science in 2002. Nesna University College has been using the example of sexual abuse of children in case study teaching in social informatics, in order to create an environment for intrinsically-motivated learning within the field of ethics in computer science. The project also gave the students a unique opportunity to get involved both emotionally and practically in the field of social informatics. The project is run in cooperation with Save the Children Norway and the Norwegian National Crime Squad. The computer science education at Nesna University College is the only computer science education in the world which has sexual abuse of children as the main topic on the computer science curriculum. The computer science students provide both the Save the Children Norway and the National Criminal Investigation Service with reports on various topics such as secure chat, camera phones and possible abuse, Freenet as a tool for sexual abuse, and so on.