Digital Ethics Integration in Akidah Akhlak Learning to Prevent Hoaxes and Hate Speech Among Students at Madrasah Tsanawiyah Negeri

Abstract

The rapid spread of hoaxes and hate speech through social media has become a serious moral concern for adolescents in Indonesian madrasahs. This study examines how digital ethics is integrated into Akidah Akhlak learning as a preventive measure against hoaxes and hate speech, how students respond to such content, and which factors support or hinder this integration. It adopts a qualitative field design with a phenomenological approach and was conducted at MTsN 1 and MTsN 2 Padangsidimpuan between March and May 2026. Data were gathered through observation, interviews, and documentation involving thirteen informants: two headmasters, three Akidah Akhlak teachers, two vice principals for student affairs, and six students. Analysis proceeded from open coding and focused coding to the extraction of themes, supported by source, technique, and time triangulation. Three findings emerge. First, teachers translate tabayyun, muraqabah, and the prohibition of ghibah and fitnah into seven practical forms of integration, ranging from daily advice and the discussion of viral screenshots to briefings delivered by the police and the prosecutor's office. Second, most students can define hoaxes and hate speech and report checking information before sharing it, yet the practice weakens when students are unsupervised, particularly in grade 7. Third, integration rests on six supporting factors, the most decisive being the relevance of the material and the competence of teachers, and is constrained by students' dispositions and by family and community environments. The study therefore offers classroom-level evidence of a process that earlier research has described mainly as a normative proposal or as a relationship between variables, and it shows that students' knowledge of digital ethics develops faster than their conduct outside the classroom.