Online versus Offline Ethics: A Comparison of Parents and their Adolescent Children in Austria and the UK

It has been argued that the special characteristics of the internet blur the ethically judgement of consumers. Moreover, theory suggests that ethical judgement of individuals develops with age. Against this background, we analyse (1) the perception of internet (online) and traditional shopping (offline) related ethical behaviour and (2) compare the perceptions of parents with their children. Based on a large scale survey of 586 parents and their children from the United Kingdom and Austria, our findings show that aberrant behaviour on the internet is viewed as less ethically questionable by consumer than equivalent offline behaviour (e.g. illegally downloading music versus shoplifting a CD). Moreover, younger consumers perceive aberrant behaviour on the internet as ethically less problematic than their parents.