Digital generation gap: China tells companies to make their sites and apps more ‘elderly friendly’ as online population balloons

New guidelines for elderly users are part of an initial campaign targeting 43 apps and 115 websites, including WeChat and e-commerce sites Taobao and JD.com. The moves are also seen as helping party-building, as people aged 61 or older account for about one-third of Communist Party membership. — SCMP

The Chinese government has asked the country’s websites and mobile apps to redesign their pages and interfaces so they are easier for the elderly to navigate in Beijing’s latest push to narrow the digital gap among a rapidly ageing population.

China’s Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT) published guidelines on Monday asking web pages and mobile apps to carry out “elderly friendliness modifications” before the end of September – including the use of bigger fonts and a ban on pop-up ads – after which compliant sites will receive an official “web accessibility” label valid for two years.