Evaluate the ethical, legal, social and environmental impacts of computer science and the relevant legislation.

What this dot point is asking

WJEC wants you to evaluate the ethical, legal, social and environmental impacts of computer science and to know the relevant legislation. This is the impact strand of Unit 4, where you weigh the costs and benefits of computing and apply the law to scenarios. Questions here are discursive, often worth several marks, and reward balanced judgement: genuine benefits, genuine concerns, and a reasoned conclusion, rather than a one-sided list.

The answer

Ethical impacts

Something can be legal yet unethical, so ethics asks not only "is this allowed?" but "is this the right thing to do?", which is the deeper question examiners want you to engage with.

Legal impacts

The law sets the minimum standard, and applying the right legislation to a scenario (data protection for misusing personal data, computer misuse for hacking, copyright for piracy) is a frequently examined skill.

Social impacts

Computing reshapes society: it changes employment (creating some jobs, automating others), transforms communication and access to information, and raises the digital divide between those with and without access. It also affects behaviour, from social media's influence to concerns over screen time and misinformation.

Environmental impacts

Examples in context

Example 1. Facial recognition in public spaces

Facial recognition can help find missing people, but it also enables mass surveillance, can misidentify some groups more than others, and raises consent and privacy concerns. Weighing the genuine benefit against these ethical and social costs, and considering data protection law, is exactly the balanced evaluation this topic demands.

Example 2. The digital divide during remote learning

When schooling moves online, students without reliable devices or internet are disadvantaged, widening existing inequalities. This concrete social impact shows that a technology can benefit many while harming those it leaves behind, a nuance examiners reward over a purely positive view of computing.

Example 3. E-waste from short device lifespans

Phones replaced every couple of years create mountains of e-waste containing hazardous materials. Designing for repairability and longer life, and recycling responsibly, reduces this. The example links an environmental impact to a practical mitigation, the structure a strong impact answer uses.

Try this

Q1. State one ethical concern raised by using AI to make decisions about people. [1 mark]

• Cue. For example, bias in the training data leading to unfair or discriminatory decisions, or a lack of transparency about how a decision was reached.

Q2. State one environmental impact of widespread computer use and one way to reduce it. [2 marks]

• Cue. For example, high energy consumption (reduced by efficient hardware and renewable energy), or electronic waste (reduced by recycling and longer-lasting, repairable devices).