Tech Safety and Older Adults
October 2020
This resources is provided by the National ClearingHouse on Abuse in Later Life
“In this increasingly digital age, NCALL is pleased to offer our newly revised toolkit, Tech Safety + Older Adults, aimed at helping older adults identify ways to safeguard themselves from those who misuse technology to control, harass, stalk, threaten, and/or defraud them.
Technology is an invaluable resource to aid older survivors in finding safety, stay connected to friends and family like never before, and find support and resources around abuse in later life. In this increasingly digital age, however, technology can be misused, and pose serious risks to safety for survivors. Technologies that abusers misuse include, but are not limited to: phones, emails, text messaging, instant messaging, computers, apps, spyware/stalkerware or other computer monitoring tools, TTY/TDD (text telephones), relay services and other assistive technology, GPS and
other location tracking services, cameras, and a variety of other surveillance devices.
The following pages provide an overview of ways abusers might misuse technologies to cause harm to their victims. In addition to the tactics listed, many offenders justify or minimize the abuse and deny that these behaviors are abusive. Perpetrators may normalize the control and abuse by making comments like “this is for their own safety” or “they’re just too old to understand.””