KATV Channel 7 - The Spirit of Arkansas: Family First: Kids Lie, Cheat, and Steal

Family First: Kids Lie, Cheat, and Steal

March is National Ethics Awareness month,  A time for schools and businesses to promote ethical behavior. Unfortunately, studies show that kids are cheating, lying and stealing in record numbers.

Talk to any group of kids and its easy to find someone who has told a lie or cheated.

"Almost everybody has," says 14-year-old Kachun.  

The numbers are discouraging. According to the Josephson Institute of Ethics, 89-percent of students believe that being a good person is more important than being wealthy, but 21-percent admit that they have stolen something from a parent or relative and 18-percent say they've stolen from a friend.

16-year-old, Derek says, "The only shoplifting I have done is for some tobacco products because I am not of legal age to buy then, and therefore I had to steal them."

When it comes to lying, 92-percent of students believe their parents want them to do the right thing, but more than 8 out of 10 say they've lied to their parents about something significant.

"As far as telling the truth all the time I don't think that can be done by anybody," says 16-year-old Ross.

And kids say cheating in school is everywhere. The majority of students, 59-percent say they've cheated on a test during the past year. And 34-percent say they've cheated more than twice. One in three students say they've used the Internet to plagiarize an assignment.

Crystal, 13, says "She showed me her report card, it had a lot of D's and C's and no A's and she took a pencil and erased her grades!"

Child Psychologist, Dr. Spencer Gelerntner, says "Societal standards are becoming lax and it's up to parents to counteract that."

Experts say parents should counteract unethical behavior by making school and family standards of right and wrong higher than society's.