Influence of the internet on the moral behavior of senior high school students in the Cape Coast Metropolis of Ghana

Abstract

The study investigated the influence of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) on the moral behavior of students of Holy Child Senior High School in Cape Coast, Ghana. The study design was the Mixed Method Research type with a population consisting of 70 teachers, 1010 students, their parents and internet cafe operators in the Metropolis. A sample size of 300 was determined for the study comprising 200 students, 50 teachers, and 45 parents randomly selected, while five internet cafe operators in the Metropolis were purposively chosen. Although the students often abuse ICT/Internet by spending excessive hours on social media (i.e. Face/wok, Twitter and Skype), downloading music, watching movies including pornographic materials, and playing games, they disagreed with the assertion that ICT/lnternet has destroyed their moral fibre. It is recommended that parents and teachers should not blame the moral decay of students (adolescents) solely on the emergence of Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) or internet but should effectively supervise, monitor and track the various websites that students visit.