Ethical Challenges of ICT for the Silver Economy

Abstract

The silver economy has been identified as a potential domain for business growth and opportunity all around the globe especially in the developed world like the European Union (EU) countries and the Baltic Sea Region (BSR) that are characterized by a significant demographic change. While ICT offers a wide array of solutions for meeting the needs of the silver generation, such as healthcare, independent living, accommodation, e-governance, assistive technologies etc., many other factors also come into play following the practical manifestations of technological development. After introducing the concept of demographic change and silver economy, this paper explores the effects of ICT solutions on the silver generation in terms of their ethical and moral ramifications. These pertain to concepts like informed consent, over-reliance on technology, social isolation and loneliness, lack of real human interaction, a decline in the quality of cross-generational communication, privacy, cybersecurity and affordability of ICT innovations. The discussion conducted in the paper emerged in the OSIRIS project – an initiative to respond to the challenges of the growing ageing populations through smart specialization approaches and technological innovation in the Baltic states.