Unethical social media behaviours among Tanzanian undergraduate students

Despite widespread guidance on digital ethics, many university students engage in behaviours such as cyberloafing, academic dishonesty, privacy violations, and harassment on social media that may violate ethical norms. Guided by Social Cognitive Theory (SCT), this study investigates (a) students’ awareness of digital ethics, (b) their engagement in unethical online behaviours, and (c) how SCT constructs (observational learning, outcome expectations, self-regulation) help explain these behaviours in the Tanzanian context. A cross-sectional survey of 180 undergraduates from two Tanzanian universities measured ethics knowledge, reported unethical behaviours, observational learning, and self-regulation. Data were analysed for descriptive patterns and SCT-based correlational insights. While 78% of respondents demonstrated moderate to high ethics knowledge, over 60% reported engaging in one or more unethical behaviours. Findings indicate that digital ethics education alone may be insufficient peer modeling and weak self-regulation play pivotal roles as per SCT.