Care and Relationality in the Digital Age: Can an Ethic of Care Help Overcome the Problem of Online Harms?

Introduction: Around the world, governments are in search of answers to the proliferation of online harms which are devastating their societies and leading to crises in mental health - with high-profile cases of suicide among Internet-trapped teenagers in recent years (Milmo, 2022). While the Internet has delivered immense wealth and prosperity across the globe, this is sadly not an

experience that has been universally felt and its impact is not unequivocally positive. In many cases, it has resulted in a spectrum of online harms that includes, but is not limited to, acts that "spread terrorist and other illegal or harmful content, undermine civil discourse, and abuse or bully other people" (Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport and Home Office, 2020).

This project engages in a category of what has been termed 'speculative ethics' to formulate a moral-political framework through which these harms can be addressed (Puig de la Bellacasa, 2017, p. 110). It does so by critically appraising the ethics of care - a theory of action grounded in the importance of receptivity, relatedness, and responsiveness (Noddings, 1986, p. 2). This

constitutes the first sustained analysis of the significance of care ethics in addressing online harms. An initial examination of online harms is followed by a critical consideration of the ethics of care, including responses to some limitations when applying it to online contexts.