We are now the fastest growing age group of internet users

Once they were regarded as the “technophobe generation” but, according to a new report, the over 50s are now the UK’s fastest-growing age group of Internet users.

And the affluent ’silver surfers’ are starting to change the way that advertisers sell their products and services on the worldwide web.

For they belong to an age group that controls 80% of the country’s personal wealth, and accounts for 40% of consumer spending.

“That,”; says mature marketing expert Fiona Hought, “makes them one of the most powerful consumer forces in Internet shopping. And they are starting to flex their muscles.”

Fiona is managing director of Millennium, mature marketing specialists that have been tracking Internet usage among the over 50s.

New research has revealed that the over 50s now make up over a quarter of web users in the UK and 14% are over 70. This is a figure that has continued to grow over the last four years.