The Digital Age of Aging: Artificial Intelligence, Ethical Boundaries, and Social Work in Elderly Care

Year 2025, Volume: 1 Issue: 3, 210 - 228, 26.09.2025

Fatma Havsut , Reyhan Atasu Topcuoglu

Abstract

Objective: The rapid growth of the global elderly population, termed the "silver tsunami" in the literature, is profoundly transforming health and social service systems. This study aims to examine the opportunities and ethical challenges of Internet of Things (IoT) and artificial intelligence (AI)-based technologies in elderly care within the framework of Thompson’s (2009) Freedom-Control Dilemma.

Method: A qualitative systematic literature review was conducted, analyzing 53 peer-reviewed articles and two academic books published between 2020 and 2025. The review focused on studies related to elderly care, health services, social work, ethics, and technology, using databases such as Scopus, PubMed, Web of Science, and ScienceDirect.

Results: The findings highlight core ethical issues in elderly care technologies, including privacy, data security, transparency, accountability, autonomy, deception-manipulation, accessibility, and technology acceptance. The analysis also emphasizes the functional layers of IoT systems and the potential of AI-supported care applications to enhance safety, health monitoring, reduce social isolation, and ease caregiver burden.

Conclusion: IoT and AI-based solutions not only improve quality of life for older people but also have the potential to establish an ethically legitimate care model within the freedom-control balance. The study underscores that these technologies must be developed in line with ethical design principles and structured to empower individuals in decision-making processes. From a social work perspective, it is essential that such processes uphold human dignity, foster participation, and ensure sustainability Therefore, social workers must actively engage in the development, implementation, and evaluation of these technologies to ensure that ethical values and human rights remain central to elderly care practices.

Keywords

Elderly Care , Internet of Things , Artificial Intelligence , Ethics , Freedom-Control Dilemma

Yaşlanmanın Dijital Çağı: Yapay Zeka, Etik Sınırlar ve Yaşlı Bakımında Sosyal Hizmet

Abstract

Amaç: Literatürde “gümüş tsunami” olarak adlandırılan küresel yaşlı nüfusun hızlı artışı, sağlık ve sosyal hizmet sistemlerini derinden dönüştürmektedir. Bu çalışma, Thompson’un (2009) Özgürlük-Kontrol İkilemi çerçevesinde, yaşlı bakımında Nesnelerin İnterneti (IoT) ve yapay zekâ (YZ) tabanlı teknolojilerin sunduğu fırsatları ve etik zorlukları incelemeyi amaçlamaktadır.

Yöntem: 2020-2025 yılları arasında yayımlanan 53 hakemli makale ve iki akademik kitap analiz edilerek niteliksel sistematik bir derleme yapılmıştır. Derleme kapsamında yaşlı bakımı, sağlık hizmetleri, sosyal hizmet, etik ve teknoloji temalı çalışmalar incelenmiş; Scopus, PubMed, Web of Science ve ScienceDirect gibi veri tabanları kullanılmıştır.

Bulgular: Bulgular, yaşlı bakımında kullanılan teknolojilerde öne çıkan temel etik sorunları ortaya koymaktadır: mahremiyet, veri güvenliği, şeffaflık, hesap verebilirlik, özerklik, aldatma-manipülasyon, erişilebilirlik ve teknoloji kabulü. Analiz ayrıca IoT sistemlerinin işlevsel katmanlarına ve yapay zekâ destekli bakım uygulamalarının güvenliği artırma, sağlık takibini kolaylaştırma, sosyal izolasyonu azaltma ve bakım veren yükünü hafifletme potansiyeline dikkat çekmektedir.

Sonuç: IoT ve YZ tabanlı çözümler, yaşlı bireylerin yaşam kalitesini artırmakla kalmayıp, özgürlük-kontrol dengesi içinde etik açıdan meşru bir bakım modeli oluşturma potansiyeline de sahiptir. Çalışma, bu teknolojilerin etik tasarım ilkeleri doğrultusunda geliştirilmesi ve bireyleri karar verme süreçlerinde güçlendirecek şekilde yapılandırılması gerektiğinin altını çizmektedir. Sosyal hizmet perspektifinden bakıldığında, bu süreçlerin insan onurunu

Keywords

Yaşlı Bakım , Nesnelerin İnterneti , Yapay Zeka , Etik , Özgürlük-Kontrol İkilemi

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