Cyber security of the elderly

Abstract

Increasing the share of the elderly in the total population and the increase of the average age of the population is a feature of the demographic picture of Serbia and a process that will continue in the years to come. Although the share of the elderly in the total population is high, their knowledge and use of digital technologies is lower compared to other categories of the population. As a result, people over the age of 65 are at greater risk of digital exclusion, which results in not only social exclusion but also difficult access to public services and the exercise of other rights. Apart from the inadequate level of digital literacy and financial costs, the issues that most often demotivate older people to join the Internet community are related to security, namely financial security, privacy, data protection, the device itself, and other issues related to mental and moral security, personal integrity and physical health. The aim of this paper is to answer the research question: is the issue of cyber security of the elderly subject of Serbian and European adult education policies and how? Aside from scientific sources, legislative documents of the EU and Serbia related to older people and digitalization are also analyzed. The descriptive method was used, and within it the analysis of content, discourse and narrative. The analysis of EU and Serbian legislative documents related to lifelong learning and digitalization shows that the goals of digital education are primarily economic, and the real target group to which the analyzed documents are aimed at are persons under 65 years of age. The security of the elderly in the digital world is currently not a priority in either European or Serbian educational policies. The results of the research indicate that a more intensive and systematic support is needed for the development of digital competencies and security of the elderly on the Internet, and that the creation of educational models for the elderly is a necessary precondition for improving their position and their full participation in different aspects of life.