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חזרה לעמוד הקודם

Senior Citizens

Senior citizens experience a digital divide of their own. As more services and information move online, gaps in digital literacy and access to technology among older adults become more pronounced, increasing the challenges they face and deepening their digital vulnerability.

This divide can affect seniors’ ability to perform tasks such as online shopping, bill payments, or accessing health care services, and can make them more susceptible to online threats.

ISOC-IL has been actively involved in addressing the digital divide and enhancing digital literacy among seniors in Israel.

Research Initiatives

We conduct research to identify the challenges that digitization and online services present for the senior population. Although the usage of the internet has been steadily increasing in the 65+ age group, significant gaps remain in their digital literacy and perceptions about internet usage compared to younger people.

We recently published a comprehensive research study exploring digital literacy and online safety among senior citizens. The study examines how this demographic uses the internet, including their usage patterns, types of online activities, and vulnerability to risks such as fraud. It maps internet usage within the elderly population, identifies the challenges they face online, and evaluates their desire to improve their digital skills and knowledge. The Knesset Science and Technology Committee has formally adopted our study’s recommendations, highlighting ISOC-IL’s crucial role in shaping policies that advance the interests of the senior population.

We have established a forum of experts to review the research findings and help guide our future efforts in addressing the needs and challenges of Israel’s senior population.

Educational Workshops

We conduct educational workshops in person and online, to enhance digital literacy and increase seniors’ preparedness in the face of online threats. In the context of these workshops we seniors are given the opportunity to raise questions and concerns about the online space.

In early 2023, ISOC-IL designed an educational workshop for seniors on the subject of safe internet use, and our volunteers ran workshops at community centers across the country.

Though seniors have seen more than the rest of us when it comes to war and conflict, the brutal October 7 attacks on Israel included a level of digital violence never seen before, with unprecedented gruesome documentation of the attacks and enormous amounts of purposely disseminated disinformation circulating through the internet. One of ISOC-IL’s first responses was to hold an online workshop for seniors, raising awareness of the unique online threat facing internet users today and providing them with the awareness and tools to combat it.

Educational Materials

We publish educational materials geared toward seniors but relevant to the general public as well, providing numerous user-friendly guides for the online space that can be accessed online anytime and anywhere. The guides are available in Hebrew, Arabic and Russian.

Outreach to Russian-Speaking Seniors

While all of our educational materials are consistently translated into Arabic, the state of national emergency following October 7 made the need for our user guides for senior citizens all the more pronounced, as those who were already vulnerable to online threats experienced an unprecedented surge in threatening digital content. We have now made our emergency guides available in Russian as well, in order to meet the needs of Israel’s large Russian-speaking senior population who make up close to 20% of the 65+ population in Israel.

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