The Ethics Centre is committed to amplifying young people’s perspectives on what an ethical society looks like to them.
Our inaugural Young Writers’ Competition in 2023 attracted over 80 outstanding, original submissions from emerging writers aged 13 to 30. Entrants tackled some the most pressing ethical issues they see in today’s world, from copyright in art, plagiarism and AI, true crime content’s impact on victims, intergenerational justice and the complexity of friendships – reflecting the breadth of unique insights offered by these articulate young thinkers.
The judges were impressed with the originality, ethical values and thought-provoking analysis in the winning entries, which will be published by online by The Ethics Centre over the coming months.
First place (13-17 years)
- Kieran Cashin, Lisa Frank and the ethics of copyright
First place (18-30 years)
- Zoe Timimi, What we owe our friends
Highly commended (13-17 years)
- Stella Eve Pei-Fen Browne, On the concept of plagiarism
- Jessica Liu, True crime media: an ethical dilemma
- Sophie Yu, I changed my mind about prisons
Highly commended (18-30 years)
- Pia Curran, What we owe each other: intergenerational and intertemporal justice
- David He, Blindness and seeing
- Layla Zak-Volpato, Gen Z and eco-existentialism: a cigarette at the end of the world
These prizes have been made possible by the generous support of Change&co, Childcare Australia United Ltd, Kirrawee Child Care Pty Ltd and Dr Penny D. Sackett.
