Protecting Older Users Online

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By Ginny Fahs, Anil Dewan, Steven Buccini, and Ora Tanner

Strong empirical evidence suggests older adults are as vulnerable as young children in their interactions online, yet technology policy projects often do not make special considerations for this age group. Adults over 60 lost $650 million as victims of online crime in 2018, and the US has seen a 400 percent increase in internet crime towards this age group over the past five years. This policy brief recommends that the federal government redesign its scam reporting system to facilitate participation by older adults. Additionally, it recommends tasking the Federal Trade Commission and other enforcement bodies of digital technology legislation to educate themselves on the implications of technology design for older adults and to regulate with their safety in mind.

This brief was completed as part of a project for the 2019 Aspen Tech Policy Hub Fellowship, a program to teach technology experts how to impact policy.

See the Project