Ethics of technology

Ages 13 to 17 Read alone · about 40 minutes

Read together

Technology is not neutral. Each design makes some things easier and some harder, and it affects people differently.

We can ask: who benefits, who is harmed, who decides, and who is left out?

Do it

1. Choose a technology: a phone feed, a car, a camera, an AI chat tool.
2. Make a table: benefits, harms, who decides, who is left out.
3. Discuss one change that would make it better for everyone.
4. Connect it to a principle you hold, such as love of neighbour.

Talk about it

• Who is left out of this design?
• Which value should guide this choice?

For the grown-up

Christians and others disagree about how much to embrace or limit technology. Encourage teens to reason, not simply to accept or reject. AI tools can produce wrong or biased answers, so teach them to verify.

Mark as done

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Where this comes from

• Winner, L., “Do Artifacts Have Politics?”, Daedalus 109 (1980): 121 to 136
• Vallor, S., Technology and the Virtues (Oxford University Press, 2016)

Written with AI assistance and checked against the sources listed. Please read it before sharing it with a child.