Xinhua News Agency, Tianjin, March 14 Title: They have their eyes on the elderly! ——Some mobile apps "harvest" the elderly group survey
Xinhua News Agency "Xinhua Viewpoint" reporters Huang Jianglin and Deng Haoran
"This dating app makes our family jump." Ms. Liu, a wuhan resident, said that the elderly in the family watched the online advertisement and downloaded a middle-aged and elderly social app, and as a result, they were lured to recharge five or six thousand yuan.
The "Xinhua Viewpoint" reporter's investigation found that the elderly now generally use smart phones, but many elderly people lack network security knowledge, and have become the object of some mobile App traffic "harvesting", and even fall into various network routines.
Many elderly people are scammed online
"My father didn't know what kind of advertisement he had ordered, and he inadvertently took out an insurance policy, and then every month he was automatically deducted without notice." Talking about this matter, Mr. Cheng from Tianjin was very angry - in just 7 months, his father was inexplicably deducted more than 1800 yuan by an online insurance platform.
When Mr. Cheng asked his father where he had taken out the insurance, the seventy-year-old man had no idea what was going on. He found through online search that this online insurance platform has placed a lot of advertisements in travel apps, shopping pop-ups, etc., and used gimmicks such as "receiving red envelopes" and "1 yuan in the first month" to attract many users to click.
The reporter found that on the "black cat complaint" platform, the online insurance platform has so far had more than 9,000 complaints, and "the elderly are misled to apply for insurance without understanding" has become a common complaint headline.
Consumer complaints on the "Black Cat Complaints" platform
Many consumers lament that now all kinds of small advertisements on the Internet are flying all over the sky, and the elderly will fall into the trap if they are not careful, which makes people invincible.
"The old man is more than 70 years old, usually thrifty, and has been cheated of more than 2800 yuan at once, and he does not think about tea and dinner every day." Mr. Li from Shanxi complained that his father studied financial management classes online, saying that it was free to learn, and after a few classes, he bought a "boutique class" worth 2888 yuan at the instigation of the so-called "professor", and found that the course content was copied from the Internet by the "professor".
According to the 49th Statistical Report on the Development of China's Internet Network released by the China Internet Network Information Center in February this year, as of December 2021, the number of elderly Internet users aged 60 and over in China reached 119 million.
With the rapid growth of elderly netizens, the number of network routines for the elderly has gradually increased. In September 2021, a research report released by the Institute of Social Development Strategy of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences showed that 17.25% of the elderly interviewed had been deceived in the network; of them, more than 40% of the elderly had been deceived by health care products, and nearly 40% of the elderly were deceived by receiving red envelopes for free.
Zhang Baoyi, president of the Tianjin Sociological Society, believes that the elderly are "young people" in the Internet field and "vulnerable groups" in the Internet field. The elderly have their physical and psychological characteristics, in the face of complex network routines, it is often difficult to distinguish between true and false, once they let down their guard, they are easy to be deceived.
There are many means of "hunting" the elderly
The reporter's investigation found that some Internet "old players" carefully studied the preferences and anxieties of the elderly, skillfully used Internet routines, and dug a "traffic pit" in front of elderly netizens.
——Focus on the pain points of the elderly's lack of companionship, and "accompanying chat" to induce paid recharge. At present, many social software has shifted the target group to the elderly group, and online dating communities and dating apps for the elderly have emerged in an endless stream. Can these kinds of apps really help the elderly find happiness?
The reporter randomly downloaded an App called "middle-aged and elderly life", and was about to chat with netizens after registration, and the recharge page popped up. Originally, only by spending 168 yuan to 368 yuan to open a super VIP, you can enjoy the "unlimited chat" function. The reporter then downloaded 5 middle-aged and elderly dating Apps, and some netizens took the initiative to talk to each other and ask for gifts such as virtual "flowers"; some Apps even charged "gold coins" for every message.
A middle-aged and elderly dating platform dating interface and recharge interface
A single man in his sixties said that he wanted to find his other half online, but after spending tens of thousands of yuan, "the bamboo basket was empty". "Voice chat is billed by the minute, and people who don't give gifts don't care."
——Keep an eye on the blind spot of the elderly's "network white", and the pop-up window information becomes a routine entrance. The reporter learned that some elderly people often click on pop-up windows with information such as "insufficient memory" and "virus threat", and then the mobile phone is vaguely installed with several mobile phone housekeepers, cleaning masters and other various Apps.
Chen Xuhui, director of the Internet Information and User Behavior Research Center of the Business School of Tianjin University of Finance and Economics, said that most elderly users have average mobile phone performance, some are old mobile phones used by their children, and the elderly are easily deceived by such pop-ups. Some software will secretly collect user information after installation, make data portraits, and label them with group labels that are "easily misled and induced"; subsequently, all kinds of inferior content and deceptive routine advertisements will be pushed on the mobile phones of such elderly people.
——Aim at the weakness of the elderly with poor recognition ability, attract traffic, and quickly realize cash. Toxic! This kind of food must not be eaten indiscriminately" "Husband cheated, left home for many years and did not return" ... This kind of article is filled with the WeChat circle of friends of some elderly people. On the short video platform, middle-aged and elderly users have become the "tap water" of some mother-in-law relationships and health care content. In the field of live broadcasting, some elderly people are deeply trapped in "emotional live broadcasting" and cannot extricate themselves.
Chen Xuhui said that while these contents carry out "brainwashing" for the elderly, they also monetize through tips, goods, knowledge payments and other ways. Previously, at the end of a "cancer" family mediation live broadcast, the anchor topic was resold to sell health care products, and many elderly people were infected by the "plot" and could not resist the impulse to consume. Some health self-media practitioners frankly said: "The content is copied, and it is good to rely on netizens to distinguish themselves." All I want is followers and clicks, and I earn advertising fees and traffic sharing. ”
Create a clear cyberspace for the elderly
In order to help the elderly cross the "digital divide" and embrace the Internet, since January last year, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology has organized a one-year special action on the aging and barrier-free transformation of Internet applications nationwide. A number of apps with large fonts, large icons, simple interfaces and easy operation have been introduced, which greatly meet the needs of the elderly.
"The efforts and achievements of relevant departments and all sectors of society to help the elderly cross the 'digital divide' are obvious to all, but some Internet practitioners try to lead the elderly into another 'traffic pit', which is intolerable to society." Chen Xuhui believes that "it is necessary to integrate social forces, introduce third-party professional evaluation agencies to carry out normalized sampling and inspection of various types of software, regularly publish the evaluation results, expose the violators, and force enterprises to comply with discipline and law." ”
Zhang Baoyi believes that platforms and app stores should take the main responsibility, attach importance to user feedback, and remove problematic apps in a timely manner. Relevant departments should also adhere to zero tolerance for illegal advertisements and pop-up windows, establish a set of rapid response mechanisms, and quickly deal with illegal problems found.
In response to the problem of insufficient network security knowledge for some elderly people, Li Chuanwen, executive director of Beijing Aoken Law Firm, suggested that tv programs and radio broadcasts with a large audience for the elderly can be used to popularize network security knowledge and typical cases, remind the elderly not to take advantage of small advantages, enhance their awareness of prevention, and once deceived, they can make timely complaints or report to the police.
Zhang Baoyi said that young people should also give more companionship to the elderly at home, on the one hand, through companionship to the elderly care and understanding, play a preventive role; on the other hand, in the companionship to teach the elderly more mobile phone use skills and anti-deception skills, to provide more security protection.
Source: Xinhua Net