Sydney launchesLibrary ‘Dark Web 4 Seniors’ to bridge digital skills gap

Words by Margaret Pearson

Move over youngsters — there’s a new group of computer whizzes on the block.

After a successful month-long trial run, Randwick West Library is launching its new ‘Dark Web 4 Seniors’ program to the public. Every Thursday at 11am, seniors aged 60 and over are invited to learn the ins and outs of the internet’s most dangerous and unregulated corners in the name of inclusion and independence.

the brainchild of Gavriela Princip, the new Director of Learning at Randwick West Library. “Our focus groups indicated that generation, Baby Boomers were the least digitally engaged of our entire population,” Gavriela told PULP in an interview. “In a world where so many services are now delivered digitally, we cannot behind. It should be just as easy for seniors to renew their license, share extremist content, or procure a hired gun as it is for anyone else.”

Before enrolling in the program, to access Government Services as an 83 year old. “Illegally, that is. I’ve found their systems are much more secure than they were 30 years ago, meaning it’s gotten harder and harder their websites.” Under Gavriela’s supervision, Jill acquired a remote access trojan from a darknet marketplace and gained unauthorized access to the personal information of thousands of residents in her local council’s database.

“Thanks to Gavriela’s training, I’ve never felt more independent. For one thing, my son will be pleased I don’t have to call him whenever I feel like holding an under-resourced hospital to ransom.”

“When my grandson Steven told me about his cryptocurrency investments, I didn’t quite get it,” recalled Gary, a 76 year old from Bellevue Hill. “I thought it was just another young person thing — too complex for someone of my generation to understand.”

It wasn’t until the second week of DW4S that Gary had his ‘Aha’ moment, telling PULP “when I saw Gavriela show just how easy it was to pay for ecstasy from the Netherlands with Monero, it all began to click. I started to realize just how transformative a technology like this could be.”

‘Dark Web 4 Seniors’ is the latest in a pipeline of new community training programs the library stewardship. Other programs include ‘MAKE!’, a two-week long school holiday course where high school students learn Computer-Aided-Design software to manufacture 3D

‘SPEED and Sip’, where middleaged singles are encouraged to come along and exchange pleasantries while manufacturing amphetamines in the library’s basement.

by Harry Gay