Most Brit Internet n00bs are old

Internet going grey

Old men formed the largest group of newbies who connected to the Internet in the UK in the last year, creating a surge in demand for websites with health tips, funny videos and and coach tours.

Some 1.9 million people got wired up to the web in the 12 months to May 2010. Three quarters of a million of them were men over 50 years-old. Over a quarter of a million women over 50 formed the next largest group of newbies, according to UKOM/Nielsen. Nearly a third of all people online in the UK are now over 50. That is roughly the actual proportion of people
over 50 in the UK, according to figures published by National Statistics.

The website with the most visitors from the over 50s in Britain is topped RealAge, which gives health tips, followed by Flixxy, which delivers cheery, family-friendly videos. Other favourite Internet past-times involved family history, community, health and travel.

Young women were the next largest group of new users, with 272,000 women between the ages of 21 and 34 going online for the first time, closely followed by 231,000 "Tweenage" girls between 12 and 20.

Numbers of UK Internet users increased five per cent to 38.8 million people in the year to May 2010, which is roughly two thirds of the total population.