Safety Toolkit for Consumer and Personal Data Protection for the Elderly during Internet Use Erasmus Project

Project Title

Safety Toolkit for Consumer and Personal Data Protection for the Elderly during Internet Use

Project Key Action

This project related with these key action: Cooperation for innovation and the exchange of good practices

Project Action Type

This project related with this action type : Strategic Partnerships for adult education

Project Call Year

This project’s Call Year is 2020

Project Topics

This project is related with these Project Topics: Inclusion – equity; ICT – new technologies – digital competences; Civic engagement / responsible citizenship

Project Summary

Studies estimate that by 2060 at least one in three Europeans will be over 65. The EC argues that digital technology can help older people to stay healthy, independent and active at work or in their community for longer and it helps to improve our quality of life. Changes in the demography require flexibility and scalability in the provision of education, healthcare and elder care services. Since May 2015, when the European Commission has adopted the Digital Single Market strategy, several studies have identified the lack of digital skills among the elderly. There is a strong need to educate EU citizens and the elderly on how to access and engage in online activities by experiencing high level of consumer and personal data protection. While digital competence is considered one of the key competences for lifelong learning as the use of digital technologies is constantly rising, the elderly population is less familiar with ICT (Gross, 2016). Specifically, the elderly generally lack awareness of current security threats, and remain under-educated in terms of applying appropriate controls and safeguards to their computers and networking devices.

Elderly people often feel security anxiety captured by internet safety perception and have doubts, such as the fear of misuse of credit cards when entering data online. They don’t know safety processes that need to be followed in relation to giving out personal and credit card information over email and the Internet, and they are not aware of how to gain advice about information security and virus protection. In general, not knowing what and whom to trust is a significant “downside” of computer use for some of the older users. In this regard, the e- Protect project envisages to address the consumer and data protection needs during internet use of the elderly people through their familiarization with the use of ICT tools, by providing them tailored training opportunities that will meet the aforementioned challenges.

The primary target group of e-Protect project which is elderly people (people aged 65+) will be empowered and develop their self-confidence when using the internet and thus support the improved integration in the labour market and society. Adult educators will also be the project’s target group as it is expected during the project to enhance their capacity for quality implementation of innovations in the field of adult learning, especially while working with the elderly population, by using digital tools and services.

The e-Protect project will offer rich informational material will be freely available online for everyone interested in learning more about internet safety for the elderly and will include the following:

•Research data and guides for the mapping of competences on internet safety for the elderly
•Competency Scale for consumer and data protection
•e-Protect Curricula for Internet Safety for the elderly
•e-Protect Train-the-Trainer Toolkit for adult educators
•Five National Reports on the e-Protect Pilot Programme Implementations for the elderly
•Transnational Report on the e-Protect Pilot Programme Implementations for the elderly

The long-term benefits for the elderly are referred to healthy aging as a construct related to well- being, quality of life, and adaptation to the technological changes of EU societies. The empowerment of the elderly is of benefit of the wider EU societies, as project partners believe that it is extremely important to support elderly people to become acquainted with digital technologies and actively engage in the EU Digital Single Market. Adult educators will increase their capacity and professionalism in regards to training elderly people for consumer and data protection during online activities; use the e-Protect Competency Scale for consumer and data protection, Curricula and Train-the-Trainer Toolkit during educational actions in order to create a positive and productive environment that supports learning. The project will reach more than 2000 individuals and organizations in France, Austria, Greece, Ireland, Cyprus and the EU. It is expected that various stakeholders will benefit from all project’s outputs, informational and educational resources, which they can freely utilize and incorporate in their activities.

EU Grant (Eur)

Funding of the project from EU: 198425 Eur

Project Coordinator

CENTRE FOR ADVANCEMENT OF RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT IN EDUCATIONAL TECHNOLOGY LTD-CARDET & Country: CY

Project Partners

• The Rural Hub CLG
• E-SENIORS: INITIATION DES SENIORS AUX NTIC ASSOCIATION
• INNOVADE LI LTD
• KENTRO MERIMNAS OIKOGENEIAS KAI PAIDIOU