WASHINGTON, DC – Their stories are numerous and heartbreaking. And I admit that I feel almost guilty enjoying a pudding cup while I listen to the members of the New Rochelle Senior Center recount the time(s) they were a victim of an online scam. The ones who only lost a few hundred dollars are the lucky ones. But there are some like Maybelle Sugarman who lost her entire life savings to an elaborate Facebook scam in 2017. “They took everything, seventy-five thousand dollars” Maybelle says. “I thought I was going to be rich,” she pauses, her voice cracking. “Now I have nothing.” It is stories like Maybelle’s that have prompted government officials in New York and the rest of the USA to take action. Effective January 1, 2021 anyone 65 or older will have restricted access to the internet. This includes Twitter, Facebook and Instagram. Plus websites such as OurTime.com, Epicurious.com, ChristianMingle.com, popular gaming sites like Candy Crush, and a list of over 1 million others the government considers a potential danger to senior citizens. “It will stop the enormous amount of fraud that is happening online,” said Thomas Daynor, a representative from the Senior Protection Services Agency (SPSA). “Seniors need to be protected from themselves,” Daynor continued. “Social media, dating websites, even cooking and religious sites are all on the blacklist.” While some seniors are angry at losing their freedom to troll the internet for friends, lovers and recipes and more, supporters of this new bill dubbed The 2019 Silver Haired Citizens Protection Act say it is the only way to keep elderly Americans safe. “They are like children,” said Mary Dunleavy a co-author of the 2019 bill. “We have protections to keep children safe online and extending that to accommodate an aging population is just the next logical step.” While the SPSA encourages seniors to sign up themselves they admit that they are relying on the adult children to be the ones to police the efforts to keep their parents off unsafe websites and enroll them in the program. New York, Pennsylvania, Michigan, New Jersey and Connecticut will start pre-enrollment March 15, 2020 and after January 1, 2021 internet service providers will be required to have an age verification system in place to keep older users from accessing restricted content.
New Law Restricts Access to the Internet for Senior Citizens 65 and Older by 2021
