You have certainly already come across them while casually scrolling through your social accounts. And you may not have noticed anything. From TikTok to Instagram via X and especially Facebook to name only the most popular, these images have been proliferating online for several months. There's this little boy lying next to an adorable puppy, both excited to have splashed around in the mud. This American veteran on a wheelchair after losing his leg with a sign in one hand saying it's his birthday. Or this other adorable blond guy, chef's hat on his head and a smile on his lips, posing next to a magnificent cake that he seems to have just finished.
Welcome to the world of “boomer traps”, literally “senior traps”. These images are generated by artificial intelligence and posted on social networks with the aim of trapping, among others, the baby boomer generation, the oldest Internet users on the Web and potentially the least equipped to face virtual traps. But not only that. They also target the most sensitive users. Because these images are created to generate emotion and push the Internet user to lower their guard.
