An increasing number of websites are being aimed at "silver surfers", the fast-growing band of older people who are discovering the power of the internet.
"It's very easy to write older people off when it comes to new technology," says a spokesperson for Age Concern, the UK's largest charitable operation, which celebrates its 60th birthday this week. "But the reality is that one in four people aged 50 plus uses a computer in their spare time, some 2.2m older people already use the internet and even more email their friends and family."
Recognising the internet as a valuable information and communication tool for older people, particularly the isolated, Age Concern, in partnership with Microsoft, is piloting Mobile IT Training Sessions (MITS) around the UK to introduce the new technology to older people.
This week has also seen the launch Help the aged's website, which aims to provide 10.8m older people, their relatives and carers with information on all aspects relating to the older population. It allows visitors with poor vision to enlarge text on screen or change colours.
Help the Aged director general Michael Lake says: "The sheer power of the internet to inform and empower older people has the potential to change the way everyone lives their lives. For too long retired people have been excluded from the routes to political and social influence. This will now change as the silver surfers access services, consumer goods and government from the comfort of their own homes."
So where do novice silver surfers start? If you can't afford your own computer, many public libraries and local colleges offer cheap access to PCs and hundreds of day centres are also connecting up to give thousands of low-income pensioners ready access to internet sites.
There is a growing wealth of websites aimed at those in their middle to older years. Here is a taster of some worth visiting.
This user-friendly site lets you access the charity's range of advice leaflets on subjects including pensions, residential care and welfare support as well as background briefings on the older population and government policy. You can also get information on events and campaigns, make donations online and register to receive emailed monthly policy update bulletins.
This site comes with a useful guided tour with short cuts to its main sections including news, Age Concern publications, links to other useful websites and a huge range of factsheets on a range of topics for older people which you can read on screen or print.
Baby Boomer Bistro is "an internet chat cafe designed for the over-50s" set up by Age Concern's sister organisation Age Resource. After registering by choosing a chat name and a password, you to join in online discussions about day-to-day events and topics by visiting different "rooms", some with specific themes and some designed for private chats. The rooms are regularly monitored to ensure they are not being abused.
The website for the Association of Retired and Persons over 50, Britain's largest campaigning organisation for people over 50 with 100,000-plus members. Lots of interesting and useful information on a wide range of topics including health, study, retirement, employment, property, caring, travel and finance, though the association is an introducer for financial products only from CGU Financial Services. Allows you to email your views on various topics.
Launched a year ago and now with over 40,000 registered members, this is described as the market leading "portal" or "online community" for people aged 45 and over where the site contents are largely dictated by what members want.
It offers access to a several channels including news, on-line shopping, health, travel, finance and dating, where you can read features and ask questions of experts.
You can also access more than 100 topic areas set up and run by members, complete with chat rooms, on anything from hobbies and leisure pursuits to campaigning issues such as lobbying for better pensions and getting older people back to work.
So popular is the site that more than 200 members are meeting face-to-face for a weekend in a hotel later this month to celebrate vavo.com's first birthday.
Described as an, "informative, fun and interactive online community created by and for people aged 50(ish!)", this is a similar, but smaller, idea to vavo.com, though perhaps a bit more tricky to use.
"I don't feel 50" is a lively site set up in 1998 as "the first UK site for over 50s" by Graham Andrews, who felt that existing over-50s organisations tended to be a bit, "po-faced and institutional". The aim of the site is to give' "practical, unbiased help to people aged 50-plus" and it gives lots of information on a range of serious subjects from financing your retirement to prostate cancer as well as lighter topics such as all-time favourite music albums. Also allows exchange of views via email.
http://www.hellsgeriatrics.com
An intriguing site which introduces itself by saying: "For too long the world wide web has been the domain of callow youth. Now it is time for the over-50s to fight back and claim their rightful status in cyberspace." It offers chat rooms and a small mix of both serious and fun topics including a section on alien life and a good humour section. Its irreverent tone is set by the caveat: "HG is a non-profit making organisation but not intentionally so!"
As the website for Saga magazine, the UK's largest monthly magazine for people aged 50 and over, this has the current issue online plus a large amount of archived material from past issues.
This is an online magazine for, "discerning 50-somethings" which offers great service for novice silver surfers because it explains the basics of website mechanics so clearly.
Its forum section, for example, is,"an electronic bulletin board on which you can submit your comments and views which stay on the board for three months and to which any number of people can respond" while its chat section offers, "instantaneous, simultaneous discussions without a written record of what has been said".
