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Study on the cognitive status and countermeasures of college 
students’ network moral misconduct in the new era 

Peizheng Yan1, Nana Su1*, Junqiang Wang2, Mengsitong Li1, Nannan Ju1, 
Xiaofei Bo1 

1Shandong University of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Jinan, Shandong 250355, China.; 
2Shandong Institute of Arts and Crafts, Jinan, Shandong 250355, China 

Correspondence: Nana Su 
Email: yan_peizheng@163.com 

Abstract. The rapid development of network information technology in the new era makes the 
construction of network ethics face a severe test. Through the questionnaire survey of 986 college 
students, it is found that the network moral behavior of college students has the following 
characteristics: in the period of economic and social transformation, pluralistic values collide with 
each other; with the rapid development of network technology, moral construction and supervision 
technology lag behind; network moral education is aphasia, the innovation needs to be improved; 
college students lack of their own particularity, constraint ability and normative consciousness. The 
network moral education of college students in the new era should start from promoting the socialist 
core values, establishing and perfecting the network moral and legal construction, strengthening the 
network moral education and improving the self-management consciousness of college students, so 
as to improve the network moral quality of college students in the new era and reduce the 
network moral misconduct. 
Keywords: The new age; College students; Network moral misconduct; Thoughts lead. 

1. Introduction 
With the profound development of network information technology, network morality, which 

mainly focuses on the code of conduct and guidelines to be followed in the network society, has 
become the main front for the moral construction of citizens in the new era, and presents a new 
construction connotation and higher value pursuit in combination with the development of the times. 
[1]As the successors of the socialist cause, their network moral literacy and cognition of network moral 
misbehavior are related to the future development of the network environment. However, college 
students, who have not yet entered the society, lack experience and experience, and are not mature 
enough, are often tested and challenged by the "double-edged sword" of network technology in the 
face of the hidden, virtual and autonomous characteristics of the Internet, which makes network moral 
misconduct occur from time to time. [2]Based on the in-depth research, this study intends to explore 
the current situation of college students' cognition of moral misbehavior on the Internet from the 
perspective of reality and understand the ideological and moral situation of college students, in order 
to provide targeted ideological and political education for college students in colleges and universities, 
and to suggest suggestions for building a clear and ecologically sound cyberspace. 

2. Survey Design 

2.1 Survey objects 
The survey selected college students in Shandong Province as the survey object, 1000 

questionnaires were distributed, 1000 questionnaires were recovered, the recovery rate was 100%, of 
which 986 were valid, the efficiency rate was 98.6%. 

mailto:yan_peizheng@163.com


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2.2 Survey tools and methods 
The survey uses the self-compiled "Internet Moral Misconduct Questionnaire" as the assessment 

tool, and adopts the method of simple random sampling. The questionnaire first collects the basic 
information and Internet access of the survey respondents, and then mainly divides into five 
dimensions: Internet information, Internet interaction, Internet entertainment, Internet crime and 
Internet moral education of college students. There are 4-5 questions under each dimension, and the 
questions are multiple-choice. 

3. Survey Results and Analysis 

3.1 Findings 
3.1.1 Basic information summary 

The questionnaires were firstly conducted on the gender, grade, professional situation and Internet 
access of the respondents. The gender ratio of the recovered questionnaires is larger than that of males, 
the grade ratio of lower grades is the majority, and the major ratio, science subjects are the majority, 
followed by arts and engineering subjects. Regarding the time spent on the Internet, most of the survey 
respondents focused on 2-5h and 5-8h. Regarding the tools for accessing the Internet, the majority of 
them tended to be cell phones. Tables 1,2 show the detailed statistics of the basic information. 

Table 1 Gender, grade and major of survey respondents 
 Gender Grade Major 

 male female freshman 
year 

sophomore 
year junior Senior 

College 
grade 5 and 

above 
science Engineering Liberal 

arts 

Number of 
persons 265 721 325 359 153 140 6 635 95 256 

Proportion 26.8% 73.1% 32.9% 36.4% 15.5% 14.1% 0.6% 64.4% 9.6% 26.0% 
 

Table 2 Time spent on the Internet and use of tools by survey respondents 

 Daily online hours The most important internet tool at ordinary 
times 

 2h 2-5h 5-8h ≥8h mobile 
phone computer Use both methods at 

the same time 
Number of 

persons 113 505 259 109 811 9 166 

Proportion 11.5% 51.2% 26.3% 11.1% 82.3% 0.9% 16.8% 

3.1.2 Summary of survey results on issues related to ethical misconduct on the Internet 
The second part of the questionnaire focuses on the current behavioral perceptions and moral 

misconduct of college students regarding online information, online interactions, online 
entertainment, and online crimes. 

3.1.2.1 Network information aspect 
As a carrier of information dissemination, the Internet is an important channel for people to acquire 

and share knowledge. The interactivity of the Internet makes everyone can become the creator and 
disseminator of information. The survey shows that college students in the new era perform well in 
the dissemination of information on the Internet, and have the ability to discern unverified messages 
or information, yellow, violent and other undesirable information, and most of them can consciously 
resist the dissemination of false or undesirable information. Regarding the use of civilized language 
on the Internet, 59.1% of college students never use inappropriate words or language, while 40.9% 
of college students say that they have used uncivilized language only with different frequency, which 
indicates that the language environment on the Internet still needs further regulation. 83.7% of college 
students think that the comments of Internet users on social hot events affect their judgment on the 
value of the events. . 



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3.1.2.2 Network interaction aspect 
The development of the Internet has extended the interaction between people from offline to online, 

further expanded the scope of friendship, and intertwined reality and virtual, as college students 
whose daily lives are gradually networked often face the emotional confusion it brings. The survey 
shows that 80% of college students tend to think that online interactions are different from real 
interactions and there are certain risks, as well as 66.5% of them do not quite agree that minors give 
up their studies and jobs to join the live industry, 51.1% of them think that many people in society do 
not express their love to their parents because of the reality or the influence of the Internet, and 50% 
of them do not quite agree with the phenomenon of online dating among college students. In general, 
the degree of variation in the cognitive situation of college students is small for the various forms of 
emerging online interactions, and a larger proportion of college students have a wait-and-see attitude 
towards it. 

3.1.2.3 Internet entertainment 
At present, it is common for college students to be addicted to online entertainment, thus affecting 

their life and study, and even their physical health. The survey shows that among the online 
entertainment modes preferred by college students, the main part is music (41.5%), while online video, 
online literature, online games and online live streaming are in decreasing order, 24.8%, 17.2% and 
15.1% respectively, and online live streaming is the least at 1.3%. Internet entertainment has a greater 
influence on college students' professional learning. On the question of whether they delayed their 
learning because of online entertainment, 41.4% of college students said they were not sure, 40.7% 
thought they did not, and 17.8% delayed their learning because of online entertainment. Meanwhile, 
7% of college students think that their relationship with friends often deteriorates because of online 
entertainment, and 48.1% of college students have delayed normal sleep time because of online 
entertainment. Fewer people (29.5%) felt back pain when playing online entertainment. 

3.1.2.4 Cybercrime aspects 
College students have strong network technical means, if the network legal concept is weak, in the 

virtual network world behavior boundary blurred, in order to their own needs need to meet the 
situation often tend to take the road of cybercrime. In terms of human flesh search, the majority of 
people believe that it violates personal privacy and affects the lives of the people involved and their 
families, while only 10.8% believe that the collection of public power can make those who have no 
social morality have nowhere to hide. Regarding the laws and regulations about the Internet, 64.9% 
of college students said they knew a little. Only 35.6% were basically satisfied with the public security 
organs' crackdown on cyber crimes. At the same time, we found that a larger proportion of college 
students directly download existing results or make a patchwork to submit when completing 
homework, which is equal to or even exceeds the number of students who never do so. About half of 
the students disapprove of some pricey genuine software or some genuine books and film resources 
being decrypted and sent online for people to download for free, and the same half of them hold a 
wait-and-see attitude or approve of it. 
3.1.3 Summary of survey results on issues related to college students' online moral education 

The questionnaire concludes with a survey statistic on the cognitive situation of college students' 
online ethics education and the current status of education. Internet ethics education for college 
students is an important initiative to improve college students' Internet literacy, enhance their ability 
to use the Internet correctly, and avoid the occurrence of Internet ethical misconduct. The survey 
shows that 44.1% of the survey respondents have received education on Internet ethics or responsible 
Internet behavior from their institutions, 58% understand that the school has issued norms about 
college students' Internet ethics, and only 7.5% think that the content and form of Internet ethics 
education are improving with the times. 89% of the survey respondents think that China should 
continue to improve Internet laws and regulations, and 87.2% of the survey respondents think that 
there is a need for Internet ethics education for college students. 



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3.2 Analysis of survey results 
Morality is the code and norm of people's common life and their behavior. Internet morality also 

emerges accordingly, inheriting from the real morality but with its new connotation and value 
embodiment. As the "aborigines" of the Internet, college students in the new era have basic values 
and judgments on their own and others' behaviors based on the inheritance of the existing morality, 
but the limitations and special features of themselves and the related social environment make the 
cognition and their own behaviors about the network moral misconduct such as academic misconduct, 
network addiction, network violence, network fraud, etc. However, due to the limitations and special 
characteristics of themselves and the relevant social environment, the cognition and their own 
behaviors of such behaviors as academic misconduct, Internet addiction, Internet violence, Internet 
fraud, etc. have deviations, which have profound effects on the development of college students and 
the progress of society. As to the reasons for the deviation in the cognition and behavior of college 
students regarding moral misconduct, the following four conclusions are drawn by combining social 
background, literature analysis and survey results. 
3.2.1. During the economic and social transformation, multiple values collide with each other 

With China's reform and opening up, China's economy and society have produced profound 
changes, and China is now in a period of economic and social transition. Economically, it has changed 
from a small peasant economy and collective economy to a socialist market economy; socially, the 
agricultural society is moving towards an industrial society. The reform and opening up has brought 
advanced technology, but also the influx of Western values and ideas, and the development of Internet 
technology has accelerated the infiltration of Western culture. Socialist values are facing a severe test 
under the influence of reform and opening up and socialist market economy, and traditional Chinese 
virtues are gradually being forgotten. The agricultural civilization is facing the impact of industrial 
and post-industrial civilizations, and the whole social environment is facing the crisis of value 
reconstruction, and the bad culture such as chasing after profit and greed for pleasure is gradually 
prevailing. Under the social environment of great changes, college students in the new era are 
inevitably affected by the impact of multiple values, and their value judgments and value goals are 
often confused, which leads to cognitive and behavioral deviations of network morality. 
3.2.2 Rapid development of network technology, ethical construction and regulatory 
technology has lagged behind 

The statistical results show that 42.8% of the research subjects have used inappropriate language 
when expressing their opinions, 58.8% of the research subjects have directly downloaded existing 
results or made a patchwork submission when completing their assignments, and 64.4% of the 
research subjects think that China's public security organs are not very satisfied with the crackdown 
on cybercrime. The virtual world constructed by the network is special compared to real life, with 
strong autonomy and blurred behavior boundaries, while the development of network technology as 
a new thing, the development speed is rapid, and the relevant systems and laws often lag behind. The 
rapid dissemination of information in the Internet era increases the probability of collision of different 
civilizations and values in the era of "global village", and the "amplification effect" of undesirable 
culture. At the same time, influenced by the market, popular culture gradually shows a tendency to 
vulgarization, entertainment, vulgarization, violence of the cultural products are numerous. [3]The 
imperfection of network supervision technology and the lack of civilized regulation mechanism make 
the network environment a disaster area for various problems of social development, and the new-
age college students, as the "original residents", become the important participants of network moral 
misconduct. 
3.2.3 Internet ethics education is out of date and innovation needs to be improved 

The statistical results show that 44.1% of the research subjects' colleges and universities regularly 
educate on the responsibility of online behavior, 63.5% of the research subjects' colleges and 
universities pay little or no attention to the content and form of moral education to keep up with the 



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times, while 87.2% of the research subjects think it is necessary to carry out online moral education. 
College students' online moral education is an important part of ideological and political education, 
and colleges and universities, as the main position of college students' ideological and political 
education, are the main bearers of college students' online moral education. However, at present, the 
propaganda and education content of college students' network morality is vague, "duck-fill teaching" 
is common, and high-quality and innovative teaching forms are lacking. The content of national and 
social network ethics education is relatively small, or even silent. As a kind of non-compulsory code 
of conduct, moral education is more difficult than the rule of law, and it needs more subtle influence 
to make it penetrate into people's hearts. How to avoid "false, big and empty" and choose a subtle 
way to make college students actively participate and learn, and practice it in their hearts is a question 
that should be considered in the new era of online moral education for college students. 
3.2.4 College students' own special characteristics, the ability to discipline and normative 
awareness is not strong 

22.5% of the research subjects have forwarded unconfirmed information, 19% of the research 
subjects have browsed and downloaded undesirable information such as yellow violence, while 83.7% 
of the research subjects think that the comments of netizens on social hot events will influence their 
value judgment on the events, which indicates that college students are in the stage of further 
socialization, with insufficient social experience and lack of social experience, and their minds are 
not mature enough. They lack moral standards for right and wrong judgment, and are weak in 
discerning the complicated information on the Internet and are easily influenced. At the same time, 
college students are both dependent and independent, on the one hand, they are curious and eager to 
be independent and realize their self-worth, but on the other hand, they are not capable and dependent 
on their families, so they are full of contradictions, and under the impact of multiple value information 
on the Internet, they are easily confused about their values. The freedom and anonymity of the virtual 
network space emphasize the self-discipline of individuals, and with academic pressure and lack of 
discipline, college students who are confused about their values are prone to lose themselves and let 
go of themselves. 

4. Research on countermeasures of online moral education for college students 
in the new era 

4.1 Cultivating and practicing socialist core values and gathering social value consensus 
Facing the value reconstruction crisis caused by the collision of multiple civilizations in the new 

era, the whole society should unswervingly cultivate and practice socialist core values, gather social 
value consensus, and strive for the rejuvenation of the Chinese nation. Colleges and universities 
should firmly believe in Marxist ideals; at the same time, they should promote traditional Chinese 
culture and deeply explore the realistic connotation of traditional virtues to provide an inexhaustible 
source for the construction of values; they should increase propaganda efforts, use scientific, inclusive, 
socialist and up-to-date mainstream values to gather the consensus and behavioral synergy of teachers 
and students, and play the role of ideological leadership, so as to cultivate the lofty value pursuits and 
the ideal beliefs of college students in the new era. In order to cultivate the noble value pursuit and 
ideal belief of the new era college students, continuously improve their own quality, and become 
qualified successors of the socialist cause.[4] 

4.2 Network ethics construction "soft" and "hard" together to build a good network 
environment  

Facing the problems of imperfect construction of network morality, lack of laws and regulations 
related to network behavior and imperfect network supervision technology, colleges and universities 
should take both "soft" and "hard" measures in the construction of network morality to build a good 
network environment. On the one hand, it adopts "soft culture infiltration", strengthens the 



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propaganda on the content and code of conduct of network morality, creates the network social 
atmosphere that it is honorable to follow network morality and shame to violate network morality, 
makes college students know the law, abide by the law and use the law, and consciously regulates 
their network behavior; it should use the network control technology to strengthen the management 
of campus IP address, block the bad websites and cut off college students from the network. We 
should use network control technology to strengthen the management of campus IP addresses, block 
bad websites, cut off the contact way between college students and violent and pornographic 
information, and clean up the network environment. On the other hand, we should adopt "rigid 
regulations". As the national level further establishes and improves the network code of conduct and 
laws and regulations, sets clear boundaries of behavior for network users and regulates network 
behavior, universities should strengthen the promotion and education of network laws and regulations, 
strengthen network supervision, ensure the enforcement of laws and zero harboring and zero tolerance 
for illegal and criminal behaviors. The universities should strengthen the promotion and education of 
network laws and regulations, strengthen network supervision, ensure the implementation of laws, 
and have zero harboring and zero tolerance for illegal and criminal acts. At the same time, university-
related network media, as a key member of the network society, should fulfill their social 
responsibility, accept social supervision, help purify the network space, guide the network opinion 
correctly and avoid the occurrence of network verbal violence. 

4.3 Strengthen the strength and breadth of network ethics education, and enrich the content 
of innovative forms 

Faced with the problem of losing voice and lack of innovation in online moral education, the 
strength and breadth of online moral education should be deepened, the form of communication 
should be innovated and the content should keep pace with the times. As the main position of college 
students' online moral education, colleges and universities should take the responsibility of cultivating 
qualified college students' Internet users in the new era. Strengthen the construction of campus 
network culture, establish and improve the curriculum system of online moral education for college 
students, such as making full use of the second classroom, flipped classroom, and using new media 
technology to promote and publicize online morality;[5] conduct case analysis on college students' 
online moral misconduct, hold debate activities, etc. to make students become active participants of 
online moral education instead of passive recipients; integrate online moral education into the courses 
of network technology, ideological and political education, etc. We integrate online moral education 
into the courses of Internet technology and ideological and political education, and continuously 
improve the moral quality of college students. In view of the problems related to the confusion of 
new-age college students' thoughts, pressure of study and life and network addiction, we strengthen 
the psychological counseling and training of college students, establish a counseling group for 
network problems, prescribe the right medicine to solve the fundamental problems of new-age college 
students, and cultivate positive values and life goals of college students.[6] 

4.4 Individuals improve their sense of self-discipline and rational use of Internet technology 
College students in the new era should set up noble value pursuit, enhance network moral literacy 

and self-management ability, use the network reasonably, regulate their own network behavior and 
maintain the network order. They should reasonably control the network time to avoid overindulgence 
in the network; distinguish the network from reality, enhance their social interaction ability, and avoid 
problems such as emotional indifference; actively study the norms of network use and laws and 
regulations, and consciously resist and supervise the bad information on the network; actively 
participate in social practice activities, cultivate their observation and thinking ability, accumulate 
social experience and practical experience, so as to make objective and calm judgment on network 
information and enhance their independent thinking and analysis ability on network information. To 
make objective and calm judgments on Internet information and enhance the ability of independent 
thinking and analysis of Internet information. 



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5. Summary 
Network moral misconduct is the reflection and embodiment of moral misconduct in the network 

era, which is a kind of extraordinary behavior produced by individuals who lose the restraint of 
network morality or their own internal self-discipline in the network environment. Higher education 
institutions should strengthen the cultivation and practice of socialist core values; promote both soft 
and hard network moral construction to build a good network environment; strengthen the strength 
and breadth of network moral education, enrich the content and innovative forms; improve individual 
self-discipline consciousness and use network technology rationally. To reduce and eliminate 
network moral misconduct, we should strengthen the strength and breadth of network moral education, 
and enrich the content and innovative forms. 

Acknowledgements  
We express our sincere appreciation to the reviewers for their helpful comments on this article. 

Conflict of interest statement 
The authors declare no conflict of interest. 

Funding 
This study was supported by the Traditional Chinese Medicine Science and Technology 

Project of Shandong Province (No. 2021M141). [Funded project] Shandong Provincial TCM 
Science and Technology Project, Research on the realization path of the function of TCM culture in 
cultivating TCM talents, No. 2021M141. 

Key Project of the National Association of Higher Education in Chinese Medicine Student 
Work Research Association, Research on Innovation of Mental Health Education System of 
College Students in the Context of "TCM+Internet" Culture, No. XGNH2019-K04. 

References 
[1] Wang Weiguo. Strategic thinking on strengthening the moral construction of citizens in the new era[J]. 

Thought Theory Education,2019(12):47-53. 
[2] Chang, Fang Yuan. Research on the formation mechanism of college students' online moral misbehavior 

and its guidance[D]. Jilin University,2016. 
[3] Zhang Na. Performance, causes and governance path of online moral misconduct[J]. Law and 

Society,2019(11):136-137. 
[4] Song Lai. The current situation of contemporary youth's Internet civilization literacy review and the path 

to enhance it[J]. Thought Theory Education,2019(02):77-80. 
[5] Wang L, Li E Na, Wu ZJ. The current situation and analysis of college students' online morality in the 

new media environment[J]. Science and Education Wenhui,2019(05):37-38. 
[6] Du Yingfan. Research on the current situation of college students' online media literacy and the path to 

enhance it under the new Internet normal--a survey based on some students in eight colleges and 
universities in South University City of Zhengzhou[J]. Henan Education(Higher Education),2019(03):28-
32. 

 

 


	1. Introduction
	2. Survey Design
	2.1 Survey objects
	2.2 Survey tools and methods

	3. Survey Results and Analysis
	3.1 Findings
	3.1.1 Basic information summary
	3.1.2 Summary of survey results on issues related to ethical misconduct on the Internet
	3.1.3 Summary of survey results on issues related to college students' online moral education

	3.2 Analysis of survey results
	3.2.1. During the economic and social transformation, multiple values collide with each other
	3.2.2 Rapid development of network technology, ethical construction and regulatory technology has lagged behind
	3.2.3 Internet ethics education is out of date and innovation needs to be improved
	3.2.4 College students' own special characteristics, the ability to discipline and normative awareness is not strong


	4. Research on countermeasures of online moral education for college students in the new era
	4.1 Cultivating and practicing socialist core values and gathering social value consensus
	4.2 Network ethics construction "soft" and "hard" together to build a good network environment
	4.3 Strengthen the strength and breadth of network ethics education, and enrich the content of innovative forms
	4.4 Individuals improve their sense of self-discipline and rational use of Internet technology

	5. Summary
	Acknowledgements
	Conflict of interest statement
	Funding
	References