Raúl Santos
Looks like old people are being barred from the internet.
From the article:
After walking the Great Wall of China and making plans for a trip to Russia, Shirley Greening-Jackson thought signing up for a new internet service would be a doddle. But the young man behind the counter had other ideas. He said she was barred - because she was too old.
At first, I thought this didn’t make any sense. But then I thought about something I talk about every time: people should be forced to have a minimum knowledge about computers before being allowed to buy one. Why? Because if you screw up, you may be endangering not only your privacy and your data but also the privacy and data of your family, friends and co-workers. E-mail worms, spam, spyware, you name it! The internet is not a safe place for people who don’t know what they are doing.
Still, I know someone who is 73 years old and still knows more about computers and the internet than your average teenager.
Perhaps these guys intentions are good but couldn’t they implement them in another way? Like asking people to take a small written test with some questions to test that person’s knowledge about computers. If he/she scored enough, he/she could buy the computer, internet connection, whatever. Otherwise, the person would be kindly asked to go lear a bit more and return afterwards. The questions on the test could even be selected randomly from a database, so people wouldn’t just ask their nephews or grandchildren to tell them the correct answers after visiting the store the first time.
well, actually, they’re intentions are not that honorable. They explained that the age requirement was due to the fact that old people could fail to understand their contract. But I still think my idea would be cool ;)