How to Address Ethics of Emerging ICTs

The paper explores the question of how ethical issues of emerging information and communication technologies (ICTs) can be addressed. It draws from the EU FP7 project ETICA which identified emerging ICTs, the ethical issues they raised and evaluated them. Currently ethical issues in research and development tend to be addressed by using an ethics review process based on bio-medical ethics. The paper discusses how this process is implemented in the EU's 7th Framework Programme and how the limitations it displays with regards to the ethical issues of emerging ICTs. Based on these findings, the paper discusses the concept of ethics and its implications. This is used as a basis for the introduction of the recommendations arising from the project. These are divided in recommendations for policy makers and recommendations for industry, practitioners and civil society. The paper concludes by discussing the implications of these recommendations.