The use of social media in social care: a systematic review of the argument-based ethics literature.

Abstract

Digital technologies, especially social media, have become everyday tools. In care settings, the use of social media is considered a possible guarantee to maintain quality practices. This trend is specifically relevant for social care, including social work, psychology, psychiatry, rehabilitation etc., due to their communicative nature. Nevertheless, this use is joined by ethical vulnerabilities. To get insight into these, a systematic review of relevant normative-ethical literature was carried out following a 4-step methodology: developing ethical-conceptual questions; a literature search in four electronic databases (CINAHL, Philosopher's Index, Web of Science, ProQuest Database Psychology); assessment and inclusion of articles based on predefined criteria; extracting, analysing, and synthesizing reported data. Thirty-three articles were included, showing that current ethical debates are governed by nine themes: Benefits of social media; Relations, limits, and boundaries; Searches; Privacy, confidentiality, and trust; Documentation and records; Competency and client suitability; Consultation and referral; Informed consent; and Identity and image. We found that most ethical literature on social media use in social care settings adheres to the principles of biomedical ethics (respect for autonomy, beneficence, non-maleficence, justice) and to an ethics of carefulness, i.e. an ethics which takes social media for granted and considers its impact only on the particular therapeutic relationship. It loses sight of those ethical issues which occur on organizational, societal, and global levels. A full account of the ethics of social media use can only be given by considering these different levels and by informing the ethics of carefulness by an ethics of desirability.