Digital skills and safety technology for older parents

Three different problems, often confused as one

"Get Mum online" usually means three separate things: building enough confidence to use a phone or tablet without fear of breaking it, staying safe from the people who specifically target older people online, and the safety technology, alarms, sensors and trackers, that families increasingly rely on but rarely get proper advice on. Solving the wrong one first wastes effort.

The scale of it

Age UK's most recent figures are direct: 19% of people aged 65 and over, around 2.4 million people, use the internet less than once a month or not at all.¹ That is not evenly spread. Among 65 to 74 year olds it is one in ten. Among the over-75s it is three in ten, 1.9 million people.¹ Women aged 65+ are more likely to be offline than men, 22% against 15%.¹

The reason is rarely the technology itself. Age UK's research found 31% of people 65+ in England feel their IT skills are not good enough, and 29% feel they simply have no reason to go online.¹² Both of those are fixable with the right first step, and neither is fixed by a device sitting unused in a drawer.

Getting started: video calls that actually get used

The devices that work best for someone who has never used a tablet are usually the simplest ones, not the most capable ones. A standard tablet or smartphone can do everything, which is exactly the problem: too many icons, too many ways to get lost. Devices built specifically for this, with a handful of large one-touch buttons that only do video calling to a pre-approved list of family members, remove the part that causes the anxiety in the first place.³

Whatever the device, the same principle holds: agree a fixed time for the call rather than "we'll call you sometime," write the steps down in large print next to wherever the device sits, and expect to do the first few calls together in person if you can. AbilityNet's free helpline (0300 180 0028) will talk you through options and, in some areas, come and set a device up.³

Staying safe once they are online

The people who call, email and message older people specifically are not amateurs, and the tactics are well documented. Age UK's guidance sets out the patterns worth knowing before they show up:²

• Phishing emails that look like they are from a bank or a trusted organisation, asking you to click a link and "update your details."
• Fake websites built to look identical to a real bank or retailer, designed to take login details or card numbers.
• Cold calls claiming to be IT support. Age UK is blunt about this one: legitimate IT companies never contact customers out of the blue this way.
• Relationship scams, where trust is built over weeks on social media or a dating site before money is asked for.

The practical defences are ordinary but effective: a different password for anything involving money, software kept updated rather than dismissed, and a habit of never acting on a message that creates urgency without checking it independently first, by calling the organisation on a number you already have, not one in the message. Anyone who thinks they have been scammed can report it to Action Fraud on 0300 123 2040.²

Safety technology: alarms, sensors and location sharing

Alongside getting online, a separate and increasingly common set of decisions is the safety technology that sits around an older parent rather than on a screen in front of them. It is worth being direct about what this technology is for before going through the options: it tells you something happened, or that someone is safe, or where they are. It cannot sit with someone, make them a cup of tea, notice they have gone quiet, or have an actual conversation. It is a layer of reassurance around a person, not a substitute for a person, and the families who get the most out of it tend to be the ones who treat it that way from the start.

Personal alarms. A wearable pendant or wristband with a single button connects, at a press, to a 24-hour monitoring centre that can call an emergency contact or the emergency services. Age UK's own service runs from around £24 to £31 a month depending on the model, with some versions adding automatic fall detection, sensing a hard fall and raising the alarm without anyone needing to press anything.⁴ It is worth knowing that fall detection cannot guarantee to catch every fall, it depends on how and where the device is worn, so it is a safety net rather than a certainty.

Location sharing. Apps that let a phone's location be seen by a chosen family member, the same idea behind Apple's Find My, are increasingly used by families for reassurance rather than restriction. This only works, and only sits right, when the person being located has agreed to it and knows it is on. Framed as "so we know you're alright," rather than checked-up-on, it tends to be accepted far more easily.

Cameras that connect without needing to be answered. Some video-calling devices, including the "Drop In" feature on Amazon's Echo Show, let an approved family member call straight through and see, and be seen, without the person at the other end needing to press anything or pick up.³ This is different from a personal alarm, it is not detecting a fall or raising an alert on its own, it is simply removing the one barrier that stops an older person using video calling at all: having to answer it. For a parent who struggles to reach a device in time, or finds an incoming call itself stressful, that removes the friction rather than adding technology for its own sake. It is worth agreeing with a parent, while they can still be part of that conversation, when this is welcome and when it is not, a video dropping in unannounced is a very different thing in the living room to the bathroom.

Digital photo frames. A frame that friends and family can add photos to remotely, from anywhere, without the older person needing to do anything technical themselves, is one of the simplest pieces of technology in this list and often one of the most effective. Alzheimer's Society's own shop sells one built around exactly this: family upload photos and videos via an app, and the frame displays them automatically.⁵ For someone living with dementia in particular, a rotating set of familiar faces and places is a genuine, low-effort prompt for memory and conversation.

Where AirCarers Companion fits

None of this technology replaces a person turning up, and we would never suggest it should. An alarm can tell you someone has fallen. It cannot sit with them afterwards. A location-sharing app can tell you where someone is. It cannot tell you how they actually are today, or notice the thing a companion would spot in the first five minutes of a visit. A photo frame can spark a memory. It cannot have the conversation that follows one.

What this technology does well is fill the hours nobody can physically be there. A companion visit is real company, in the room: a conversation, a walk, a proper cup of tea made by someone who showed up. The technology in this guide is what covers the gaps around those visits, not a replacement for them. The two are not competing with each other, they do different jobs, and most families end up using some of both.

We work across Ware, Hertford, Hoddesdon, Broxbourne and the surrounding SG11 to SG14 and EN10 to EN11 postcodes. Every companion is enhanced DBS checked, ID verified, insured and trained. Visits start at one hour, from £25 an hour, set by each companion. Companions do not provide personal care, medication or anything clinical, and if what you describe needs more than that, we will say so.

Other guides families ask about

• Support for a parent living alone: the full picture, every level of help that exists, free to regulated.
• Signs of loneliness in an elderly parent, the quiet signs that are easy to miss.
• Companionship for someone with dementia, including local memory cafes in all four towns.
• When a parent stops driving, what actually replaces the car.

If you would like to talk it through

If you are trying to work out what would actually help, a bit more confidence online, a safer way to know a parent is alright, or simply more company day to day, we are glad to have a calm, no obligation conversation about it.

AirCarers Companion · aircarerscompanion.co.uk · 07455 750006

Information correct as at 6 September 2026. Prices, services and product details can change, so please check current details directly with each organisation before relying on them.

References

1. Age UK, Facts and figures about digital inclusion and older people, July 2025. https://www.ageuk.org.uk/siteassets/documents/reports-and-publications/reports-and-briefings/active-communities/internet-use-statistics-july-2025-1.pdf
2. Age UK, How to stay safe online as an older person. https://www.ageuk.org.uk/information-advice/work-learning/technology-internet/internet-security/
3. AbilityNet, Technology for Seniors. https://abilitynet.org.uk/factsheets/technology-seniors
4. Age UK, Personal Alarm Service. https://www.ageuk.org.uk/products/mobility-and-independence-at-home/personal-alarms/
5. Alzheimer's Society Shop, Digital photo frame. https://shop.alzheimers.org.uk/products/digital-photo-frame