AQA A Level Computer Science (7517): Consequences of uses of computing – Study Guide

Section 4.8 of AQA A Level Computer Science (7517) asks you to show awareness of the individual (moral), social (ethical), legal and cultural opportunities and risks of computing, and to discuss the challenges facing legislators in the digital age. It is assessed through extended written answers on Paper 2, so the skill is building a balanced, well-evidenced argument about a scenario, not reciting facts about technology.

What does the AQA 7517 specification say about this topic?

Section 4.8.1 is short. Students must understand that:

• developments in computer science and digital technologies have dramatically altered communications and information flows in societies, enabling massive transformations in the capacity to monitor behaviour, amass and analyse personal information, and distribute, publish, communicate and disseminate personal information;
• computer scientists and software engineers therefore have power, and the responsibilities that go with it, in the algorithms they devise and the code they deploy;
• software and its algorithms embed moral and cultural values;
• the issue of scale (software is used the whole world over) gives individual computer scientists and software engineers the potential to do great good, but also to cause great harm.

Students must also be able to discuss the challenges facing legislators in the digital age. The specification’s teaching notes suggest hypotheticals and case studies, using Google Street View as an example: weighing individual and cultural expectations, informed consent, the value of the service and its commercial value.

The specification does not name any particular law, so no Act is required learning. You may cite real law as evidence (see below), but the marks come from the quality of the discussion.

How should you organise an answer?

Use the specification’s own four headings:

• Individual (moral) issues: what is right or wrong for a person, such as a programmer asked to build a system that tracks users without consent.
• Social (ethical) issues: effects on groups and society, and the standards of fairness expected of organisations.
• Legal issues: what the law allows or forbids, and where the law has not kept up.
• Cultural issues: changes to ways of life, values and expectations, which differ between communities and countries.

For each, give an opportunity (benefit) and a risk (harm), say who is affected, and link it to the scenario.

What are the main areas to discuss?

Monitoring behaviour

Employers, schools, platforms and governments can monitor behaviour through CCTV, location data, logged communications and online activity. This can improve safety, detect crime and personalise services. It also intrudes on privacy, may happen without informed consent and can have a chilling effect on what people say and do.

Amassing and analysing personal information

Organisations can collect and combine huge amounts of personal data cheaply and analyse it to predict behaviour, target advertising or make decisions about loans, insurance, jobs and policing. Benefits are speed, consistency and new services. Risks include bias inherited from historical data, decisions that cannot be explained (lack of transparency), unclear accountability when a system causes harm, and data being kept or reused for purposes people did not agree to.

Distributing and publishing personal information

Information can now be published to the whole world instantly and is hard to remove. This supports free expression, journalism and whistleblowing, but also enables harassment, the spread of private images and data leaks. Anonymity protects some users and shields others who cause harm.

Power, responsibility, values and scale

Because software embeds the values of the people who design it (what it measures, what it optimises, who it was tested on), developers carry moral responsibility. A design choice that is acceptable in one culture may not be in another. Because software runs at a global scale, one decision by a small team can affect millions of people, for good (free access to information, medical tools) or harm (a security flaw, a biased algorithm, a feature that spreads misinformation).

What challenges face legislators in the digital age?

Challenge	Why it is hard
Pace of change	Technology changes faster than laws can be written and passed
Jurisdiction	Data and services cross borders; a company, its servers and its users may be in different countries
Enforcement	Offenders can be anonymous or abroad; encrypted communications are hard to inspect
Balancing rights	Privacy against security; free speech against protection from harm
Technical understanding	Legislators may not fully understand the technology they regulate
Unforeseen uses	A law written for one technology may not fit a new one, such as AI-generated content

Citing real law (optional evidence). If you refer to a law, say accurately what it does. In the UK, for example, the Data Protection Act 2018 governs how organisations process personal data, and the Computer Misuse Act 1990 makes unauthorised access to computer material an offence. Naming an Act without explaining its relevance earns nothing, and an inaccurate claim weakens the answer.

Worked example: building an extended answer

Question (9 marks): A hospital plans to use an AI system to prioritise patients waiting for surgery. Discuss the issues the hospital should consider.

Plan the answer as a short sequence of paragraphs, each with a point, an explanation and a link back to the scenario.

1. Opportunity (social): the system can process every record quickly and consistently, so waiting times may fall and urgent cases may be spotted that a busy clinician might miss.
2. Risk, values embedded in the algorithm (ethical): if it was trained on historical data in which some groups were treated later, it may reproduce that disadvantage. The hospital should test results by group and keep a clinician able to override the ranking.
3. Risk, responsibility (moral): if a patient is harmed by a wrong priority, who is responsible: the developers, the hospital or the clinician? The system must record why it ranked each patient so decisions can be explained and challenged.
4. Legal: health records are highly personal data. The hospital needs a lawful basis to use them, must limit use to the stated purpose and keep them secure; the law may not yet say clearly who is liable for an automated decision, which is a challenge for legislators.
5. Cultural: patients may expect a human to make decisions about their care, and trust may differ between communities.
6. Conclusion: weigh the two sides and give a judgement, for example that the system is acceptable only as an aid to staff, with oversight and regular audit.

This structure covers opportunity, risk, law and judgement, which is what an extended-response mark scheme rewards. A reply that lists only advantages or only disadvantages is one-sided and is unlikely to earn the top marks.

Common mistakes

• Giving a list of points without explaining the consequence of each.
• Treating the topic as a list of laws to memorise. The specification names none; it asks for discussion.
• Naming a law without saying what it requires, or getting it wrong.
• Treating a technology as simply good or bad. Mark schemes look for balance.
• Ignoring the scenario and writing a general essay.
• Stating that a law “prevents” a harm. Laws prohibit conduct and provide penalties, but cannot stop it happening.

Exam technique

Read the command word: discuss requires both sides and a judgement; describe needs an account of what happens; explain needs a reason. For long answers, spend a minute choosing three or four issues from different categories (moral, ethical, legal, cultural), then write one clear paragraph per issue, using terms such as bias, accountability, privacy, consent, surveillance and scale. Refer to the named people in the scenario.

Frequently asked questions

Do I need to learn specific Acts for AQA 7517? No. Section 4.8 does not name any law. You need to discuss legal issues and the challenges facing legislators; citing a real law accurately is optional supporting evidence.

What does “software embeds moral and cultural values” mean? Software reflects the choices of its designers: what data it uses, what it optimises and who it was tested on. Those choices carry values, which may not suit every user or culture.

Why does scale matter in computing ethics? Software can be used by millions of people worldwide, so one developer’s decision can do great good or cause great harm far beyond what one person could do without it.

How are these questions marked? They are extended-response questions marked on levels. Top answers are balanced, cover several categories of issue, apply each point to the scenario and reach a reasoned judgement.

Check your understanding

1. Name the three capacities that the specification says computing has transformed. Answer: to monitor behaviour; to amass and analyse personal information; to distribute, publish, communicate and disseminate personal information.
2. Give one way automated decision making may be unfair. Answer: it may be trained on biased historical data and so repeat that bias.
3. Why is the lack of transparency in an algorithm a problem? Answer: people affected cannot understand or challenge the decision.
4. Give two challenges facing legislators in the digital age. Answer: any two of pace of change, jurisdiction, enforcement, balancing rights, technical understanding, unforeseen uses.
5. Describe one risk of employer monitoring of staff. Answer: it can intrude on privacy and reduce trust and morale.
6. Why do software engineers carry responsibility for their code? Answer: their algorithms embed values and run at a scale that can do great good or great harm.
7. What are the four categories of issue named in the specification? Answer: individual (moral), social (ethical), legal and cultural.

Related pages

• Consequences of uses of computing revision notes
• Consequences of uses of computing practice questions

Official specification

AQA, AS and A-level Computer Science 7516/7517 specification, Version 1.6 (31 July 2023), section 4.8.1 “Individual (moral), social (ethical), legal and cultural issues and opportunities”.