When the elderly fall in ‘love’ with livestreamers

Compiled by ZAKIAH KOYA, C. ARUNO and R. ARAVINTHAN

AN elderly man in China’s Sichuan province donated 60,000 yuan (RM39,400) of his retirement savings to a female livestreamer in a bid to vie for her attention, reported Sin Chew Daily.

The man’s son Gao Feng (not his real name) claimed that his father had “fallen in love” with the woman. In 2022 alone, the father donated gifts and cash worth over 60,000 yuan to her over the livestream platform.

“She only lip syncs and does a little dance. There is no aesthetic quality in her livestream performance. Even so, my father still likes her,” Gao said.

Gao used an in-app function to restrict his father’s screen time on the platform. However, the retiree was able to circumvent his son’s restrictions by creating a new account.

When the news came to light, many Internet users shared similar cases of family members being addicted to livestreamers.

When interviewed, experts on the matter said loneliness was the main factor for why the elderly often become addicted to livestream performers.

> With the rise in scam charities online, Datuk Seri Michael Chong shared three ways to distinguish real ones from fakes, reported China Press.

The first method is to determine when a photo used to solicit donations was taken. Chong said that many scammers would use old photos posted by legitimate charities to ask the public for money.

The next step, he said, is to always check the payer’s name before transferring money into a bank account.

The last method is to verify if the organisation soliciting donations is a legally-registered charity. Chong said to be safe, people are urged to find well-known legally-registered charities reported by newspapers.

The above articles are compiled from the vernacular newspapers (Bahasa Malaysia, Chinese and Tamil dailies). As such, stories are grouped according to the respective language/medium. Where a paragraph begins with a >, it denotes a separate news item.