How does technology care for "one old and one young"? Respect the heterogeneity of the elderly and protect the privacy of children

In the new era, how can Internet products provide better products, services and protection for the elderly and minors?

At the 2022 WeChat Open Class PRO's "WeChat For All Ages - Technology for the Elderly and the Protection of Minors Roundtable Forum", a number of scholars in the field of the protection of the elderly and minors discussed with the heads of WeChat-related businesses.

Respect the heterogeneity of the elderly and promote the inclusive development of the information society

The results of the seventh census released in May 2021 show that the proportion of China's population aged 60 and above reached 18.7%, an increase of 5.44 percentage points compared with 2010. According to the latest statistical report on the development of China's Internet network, the proportion of Netizens aged 60 and over in China is 12.2%. With the deepening of China's aging society, how to let the elderly share the dividends of science and technology, especially to be able to smoothly use a new generation of emerging and intelligent technologies, has become a mandatory question for the country's modernization construction and social more civilized progress.

"Don't always treat the elderly as weak, but help the elderly eliminate their fear of the Internet, stimulate their potential to learn Internet knowledge and integrate into digital life." Tian Feng, a researcher at the Institute of Social Development Strategy of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, said that caring for the elderly needs to break the stereotype that "the elderly are not good at playing mobile phones and are not suitable for the Internet age".

Zhou Yuqiong, a professor at the School of Communication of Shenzhen University, pointed out that the elderly are a very complex group, to respect the heterogeneity of the elderly, Internet products should also provide progressive and progressive services for different elderly groups, for example, to help the elderly who have entered the digital life to further integrate into the digital culture, to help the elderly who have not yet fully integrated to master more digital skills, to provide non-digital care for the elderly who are unwilling to integrate, "let them grow old in a familiar and comfortable way."

In the design of Internet product content, Zhou Runan, associate professor of the School of Communication and Design of Sun Yat-sen University, believes that the governance of content that the elderly like to hear should be strengthened, and at the same time, the crackdown on online fraud against the elderly should be strengthened.

Bu Wei, a researcher at the Institute of Journalism and Communication of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, talked about the inclusive development of the information society, including technological inclusiveness and psychosocial inclusiveness. Technological inclusion and its digital literacy education include at least three aspects: first, infrastructure development and its mainstream information technology applications need to be inclusive of all; second, the use of alternative technologies to accommodate people with special needs for information and communication technologies, such as people with disabilities, elderly people with reduced vision or touch screen discomfort, and illiterate people; third, the use of all traditional communication technologies other than mainstream information technology to include all people, leaving special channels for people who do not choose mainstream information technology for various reasons, To enable them to live in dignity and dignity in today's society. Psychosocial inclusion begins with the inclusion of people who use traditional or alternative technologies. It is necessary to achieve people-centered development.

In terms of elderly care, in 2021, WeChat launched a care model, WeChat Pay set up a customer service department for the elderly, and opened a "worry-free elderly" customer service line to provide help for the elderly who encounter difficulties when using WeChat.

Positive guidance to strengthen media literacy education for adolescents and parents

Tian Feng pointed out that in the era of mobile Internet, Internet access devices represented by smart phones are more convenient, and the functions and applications of mobile phones tend to be diversified. Protecting children in the Internet era is to eliminate all kinds of things in the network that are not conducive to children's growth, and the protection of the mobile Internet era is more defensive, so that children have less contact with things that are not conducive to growth. He believes that the key to helping the elderly with Internet products is to stimulate their potential and let them reach the border as soon as possible. Protecting minors is an opposite process, with strict limits to their borders and not allowing them to cross them.

Bu Wei pointed out that in addition to limiting boundaries, Internet product design needs to grasp the balance between children's privacy and parental discipline. He believes that respecting and protecting children's privacy is the bottom line. In addition to media literacy education for children, it is also necessary to educate parents about media literacy.

Sun Hongyan, director of the Institute of Children and Adolescents of the China Youth Research Center, said that a large number of minors are already active in the Internet society, and more attention should be paid to guiding them to use the Internet through positive functional design, rather than simply "blocking" and not allowing minors to contact the Internet world. With the continuous improvement of the youth mode of major platforms, parents should more actively guide their children to open a teen mode, and in the process of guidance, parents should also take care of their children's privacy needs.

In terms of the protection of minors, in 2021, WeChat improved and iterated on the teen model, and launched the "guardian authorization" capability, when teenagers encounter content that cannot be accessed, guardians can remotely authorize teenagers to temporarily access. In addition, WeChat Pay also specially sets up a flexible care service mechanism for scenarios such as minors being defrauded.

Aoyi news reporter Zhang Jieying