Legal Response to the Digital Rights Guarantees of the Elderly under the Background of "Digital Divide"

Abstract

Under the background of accelerated advancement of digitalization and aggravated population aging, the elderly group faces a significant "digital divide", and their digital rights fall into multiple predicaments. The elderly face obstacles in digital access, use, and knowledge levels, including the absence of rights for "digital refugees", the amplified marginal effects experienced by the "digitally left-behind", and the infringement of consumer rights for "digital migrants". At the legal level, the lack of digital rights and imperfect relief mechanisms in age-friendly regulations, as well as the imbalance between legal updates and technological progress of age-friendly products, exacerbate the predicament. At the technical level, extreme approaches in digital technology R&D and the market's underestimation of the elderly's value further intensify these challenges In response, it is necessary to improve the quality and efficiency of legal norms for the purpose of compensating for lag by improving the legal system, to improve legislation with the principle of preferential protection, and to enrich the content of legal guarantees through empowerment measures; at the same time, coordinate multi-stakeholder collaboration, improve judicial relief paths and age-friendly transformation, help the elderly cross the digital divide, and build age-friendly digital society.