Digital Wellbeing in the Silver Economy

The Case for a Senior Mode on Chinese Short-Video Platforms

Abstract

China now has more than 300 million Internet users aged 50 and over, and older users’ average daily online time has surpassed that of every other age cohort. Yet the “Elder Mode” currently offered by mainstream short-video platforms is confined to interface-level adjustments—font size, volume, navigation—and leaves the algorithmic back-end untouched. Adopting a critical qualitative research paradigm, this study constructs an empirical database of 21 cases (drawn from court judgments, prosecutorial announcements, and in-depth investigative reporting in mainstream media; covering 2020–2025) and identifies three patterns of exploitation: (a) e-commerce exploitation through a “digital lemon market” for overpriced inferior goods; (b) cognitive exploitation via pseudo-scientific content, mystical marketing, and predatory education; and (c) emotional exploitation through alienated parasocial interaction (PSI) and fictive kinship. The amount lost in a single case ranges from tens of thousands of yuan to RMB 3.5 million and, in commercial-fraud cases, over RMB 200 million—all of which exceed the interception perimeter of conventional bank risk control. Building on these findings, the paper proposes a three-layer “Deep Elder Mode” governance framework: algorithmic de-weighting and knowledge tracing at the content layer; cross-generational co-signing verification at the financial layer; and positive nudging combined with online-to-offline (O2O) coordination at the social layer. The paper repositions “Digital ESG” as the institutionalized expression of corporate social responsibility in the algorithmic era, breaking out of the zero-sum framing in which protecting vulnerable groups must come at the cost of business interests, and offering a culturally adaptable scheme for inclusive technology governance in aging societies.