ABA Family Legal Guide

Computer Law

Child Protection and the Internet

On the subject of homework, how can a parent prevent children from plagiarizing?

Tell them that plagiarism is a form of stealing and, again, monitor the websites they visit.

Today's parents can remember being told in school that they should not simply copy what they read in the encyclopedia. Likewise, today's students must be told not to just cut and paste what they read during their online research.

But the advent of the Internet means that it has become much easier to plagiarize and correspondingly, more inviting. Whereas parents would have had to actually retype what was printed on a page to plagiarize, their children can simply cut and paste the page electronically. In addition, prewritten (and well-written) reports are available for sale--and even for free--on many Internet sites, making academic theft and cheating accessible to children without even having to leave their desks.