Algorithmic Age Bias against Elderly Consumers in E-Commerce Marketing and Mitigation Strategies

随着人口老龄化进程加速，老年消费群体的潜力与数字权益保障成为电商领域的重要议题。本文聚焦电商营销中针对老年消费者的算法年龄偏见，系统分析其典型表现、生成机制及社会影响。研究发现，算法通过数据采集、模型训练与反馈机制，将社会固有年龄歧视内化为技术逻辑，表现为推送内容单一化、价格歧视、潮流商品排斥及适老化设计失效等问题。这种偏见不仅深化老年群体的“权利沟”，剥夺其多元化信息获取权，还导致社会资源错配与代际疏离。基于此，本文从法律保障、数据治理、商业责任与协同支持四方面提出破解策略，强调需建立算法透明机制、优化数据公平性、重构包容性商业逻辑，并构建多方联动的数字支持网络，以推动老年群体从“被动适应者”向“主动参与者”转型，助力全龄友好的数字生态建设。With the accelerating process of population aging, the potential of elderly consumers and the protection of their digital rights have become critical issues in the field of e-commerce. This study focuses on algorithmic age bias against elderly consumers in e-commerce marketing, systematically analyzing its typical manifestations, generative mechanisms, and societal impacts. The research reveals that algorithms internalize societal age discrimination into technical logic through data collection, model training, and feedback mechanisms, manifesting as homogenized content recommendations, price discrimination, exclusion from trending products, and ineffective age-friendly design. Such bias not only deepens the “rights divide” among elderly groups by depriving them of access to diverse information but also leads to resource misallocation and intergenerational alienation. To address these issues, this paper proposes mitigation strategies from four perspectives: legal safeguards, data governance, corporate accountability, and collaborative support. Key recommendations include establishing algorithmic transparency mechanisms, optimizing data fairness, reconstructing inclusive business models, and building multi-stakeholder digital support networks. These measures aim to transform elderly groups from “passive adapters” to “active participants” in the digital era, facilitating the construction of an age-inclusive digital ecosystem.