Alarmed by research showing that the elderly fall victim to scammers the most, the Ministry of Social Development and Human Security will work with its partners to introduce digital literacy to elderly people across the country.
Varawut Silpa-archa, the minister, said that more than 13 million people or about 20% of the Thai population are over 60 years old. The number of elderly will increase to 30% of the population in the next 20 years.
However, digital media literacy amongst the elderly is still low.
He cited recent research by the Intelligence Centre for Elderly Media Literacy (ICEML) at Mahidol University with the support of the Thai Health Promotion Foundation (ThaiHealth), which found that more elderly people fall victim to scammers. About 70.53% were deceived into sharing their personal information and 22.40% decided to buy low-quality products.
The ministry then joined hands with ThaiHealth, Mahidol University and Tammapun Company to introduce a media literacy curriculum for the elderly.
The course will be implemented in 2,456 schools for the elderly, Mr Varawut said.
Benjamaporn Limpisathian, a senior assistant manager from ThaiHealth, said the curriculum will help develop media literacy skills for the elderly so they can use media safely and push for the establishment of an academic centre on media literacy for the elderly.
ICEML president, Assoc Prof Nuntiya Dounghummes, said digital media literacy amongst the elderly is necessary to help prevent them from falling victim to scammers in the future.