Has the code you've written ever posed an ethical challenge?

Heads up game programmers, there’s a conversation in the broader programming community going on that may be of note to you and your work. A few days ago, software developer and teacher Bill Sourour wrote a post on Medium telling the story of “The code [he’s] still ashamed of,” that’s kicked off a discussion of what ethical considerations programmers need to learn before taking on certain projects in their careers. 

In his post, Sourour writes how as a young programmer working for a company that contracted for pharmaceutical firms, he was assigned to design a quiz that recommended participants take a drug manufactured by one of their clients over all other drugs. That drug would turn out to have devastating side effects including depression and suicidal thoughts. 

Sourour says that shortly after he finished that project, he left the company, but it’s haunted him ever since—and he’s not alone. Over on Reddit’s programming subreddit, programmers from all backgrounds (including at least one game programmer) have begun sharing stories about projects they worked on or refused that they didn’t feel were morally sound. 

It’s a bone-chilling list, but more importantly, it’s worth asking how and why this discussion might impact the game programming community. The game programmer on subreddit specifically discusses being asked to allegedly design a gambling game that’s disguised as a children’s strategy game, but that’s not the limit of what programmers may be asked to do in the game industry. 

Other stories for instance, don’t sound so far off from problems a developer might encounter. One developer was asked to code in a pre-ticked checkbox to add items to a developer’s cart at checkout. Another was asked to write code that could identify users with weak passwords and the passwords in question. 

Some of these are part of general commercial development, but when dealing with game design, there may yet be questions unaddressed in this piece. 

If you are looking for any ethical guidelines in the work you do as a programmer, Business Insider points out that the Association for Computer Machinery and IEEE have provided documents that aid in ethics training. 

(Thumb via #WOCinTech)