Digital-Age Ethics for Elementary Teachers: Challenges and Strategies for Professional Integrity

Digital transformation has expanded elementary teachers’ work into learning platforms, social media, messaging applications, data systems, and generative artificial intelligence. These tools support collaboration and instructional improvement but raise ethical concerns about professional boundaries, children’s privacy and safety, information integrity, copyright, equity, and accountability. This article synthesizes the ethical challenges faced by elementary school teachers in digital environments and identifies strategies for maintaining professional integrity while prioritizing children’s best interests. A narrative literature review was conducted through exploratory searches of scholarly articles, academic books, international frameworks, policy documents, and Indonesian legislation, prioritizing publications from 2020 to 2026 alongside foundational theories. The thematic synthesis identifies risks involving blurred personal and professional boundaries, children’s data governance, unsafe online communication, unverified digital and AI-generated content, and unequal access to technology. It proposes a Five-Dimension Framework of Teachers’ Digital Integrity comprising pedagogical, relational, information-and-data, epistemic, and civic-professional integrity. Recommendations are directed to teachers, schools, teacher education programs, families, and professional associations. The framework is a conceptual synthesis, not a validated instrument, and requires empirical testing in Indonesian elementary schools