Ethical Issues
Social media platforms are being abused in many ways. In South Sudan, Facebook has been criticized for failing to remove a viral post promoting an auction of a child bride. The social media platform discovered the post two weeks after the auction began and several days after the girl was married. Reportedly, the sale of the girl earned her father 500 cows, three cows, and $10,000 (Golgowski, 2018). According to Golgowlski, five men, including high-ranking South Sudanese government officials took part in the auction. Government officials and a Facebook spokesperson condemned the incident and took action against the sale.
The ethical issue presented in the case is human trafficking. The act of Auctioning girls on social media platforms for a marriage is a form of human trafficking. The South Sudanese girl who was actioned on Facebook is reported as either 16 or 17 years old (Golgowski, 2018). Child marriage is prohibited by international law. According to South Sudan’s transitional constitution, marriage cannot occur without the free as well as the full consent of the man and the woman intending to marry. However, South Sudanese girls are wed before attaining the age of 18. This poses them a high risk of early childbearing, maternal mortality, and the girls are often socially isolated.
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The ethical theory relating to the rights of humans is the theory of deontology and the concept of egoism. According to this concept, individuals are certain that if something helps them achieve their ends, then they must carry out regardless of cost (Isaac, 2018). Human traffickers have embraced this concept and do whatever they can to achieve their goals more so financial goals. Human traffickers profit a lot, but the act causes harm to the individual being trafficked. According to the theory of deontology and the concept of egoism, the act of human trafficking causes more harms than benefits and therefore, should be arbitrated as immoral.
References
Golgowski, N. (2018). Child bride auctioned off on Facebook, which didn’t notice the sale. [Online]. Retrieved from: https://www.huffpost.com/entry/child-bride-auction-facebook_n_5bf433c8e4b0d9e7283d89a9 . Accessed 18 th August 2019.
Isaac, T. (2018). Human trafficking. [Online]. Retrieved from: https://www.academia.edu/31452454/Human_Trafficking.pdf . Accessed 18 th August 2019.
