Seniors' Media Preference for Receiving Internet Security Information: A Pilot Study
This pilot study addresses the need for effective internet security education materials for older adults, who are increasingly vulnerable to online fraud, though it is incremental in scope.
The study investigated seniors' media preferences for receiving internet security information, finding that participants preferred text over audio for learning about phishing attacks, but comprehension scores did not differ significantly between the two media.
Due to the increasing use of Internet by older adults and their low computer and Internet security literacy, their susceptibility to online fraud has also increased. This suggests in turn that there are still too few Internet education materials targeting seniors. We take a first step towards developing interactive security information materials for seniors by determining which media they prefer and can easily comprehend. We studied the reception of two media, text and audio, as they communicated information about email-based phishing attacks. Our preliminary study of 34 seniors shows that the participants personally preferred the text over the audio. However, the comprehension score was not significantly different for participants who read the phishing training text script as compared to the participants who listened to the phishing training audio script.