If you are reading this column, you are already more digitally literate than a significant portion of your fellow Kiwis. That gap between those who aim to understand technology reshaping our world, and those who don’t, is no longer just an inconvenience. It is becoming a matter of financial safety, personal autonomy, and democratic participation.
Our seniors are bearing the full brunt of this failure. As covered previously: AI scams, deepfake investment fraud, and hyper-personalised phishing attacks are accelerating – and older New Zealanders are disproportionately in the crosshairs. Not because they are naive, but because no one has adequately prepared them. Organisations like SeniorNet do genuinely valuable work, but patchwork digital literacy programmes cannot keep pace with the type of exponential technological change that is happening before us. We need a coordinated, societal commitment to digital inclusion, that treats tech literacy as a civic right, not a charitable afterthought.
The stakes extend beyond scam awareness. Every time a senior signs up to an app, or books a medical appointment online, they are generating data harvested by for-profit companies. Most have no idea this is happening. Globally, serious conversations are now underway about whether individuals should be compensated for data that corporations currently take for free. Our seniors deserve to be part of that conversation, not its most exploited participants.
The same duty of care extends to children. Young people navigating algorithmic content feeds and AI-generated misinformation, face harms just as real, and just as under-addressed. Digital literacy must begin in schools… Not just as lessons in how to use software, but in understanding what technology is doing to you, and who benefits.
And then there are the remote rural towns and provincial communities, where technological disruption feels distant; That is until the jobs in logistics, agriculture, and retail, quietly disappear. The pace of change does not slow down for geography.
New technology genuinely could mean less backbreaking labour and more productive, connected communities. But productivity gains extracted from an uninformed population are NOT progress, it is akin to slavery, as the “worker” was never really given a choice. Informed consent is a foundational principle of democracy.
That is why this column exists. Our aim isn’t to frighten, but to empower. Whether you are in Ponsonby, or Pukekura down south, whether 16 or 76 – you NEED to be prepared. We all do.
