Social Website For Over-50s

Their grandchildren have Facebook and their pets have Dogbook. Now there is a social website designed for the more silver of internet surfers.

The network, SAGA Zone, has attracted 13,000 users since it opened four months ago.

Users can attend online parties, swap gardening tips, compare treatments for osteoporosis and air their gripes about pensions and council tax, all on the world wide web.

Many also share their tips for overcoming the loss of a loved one.

Users can create their own personal profiles complete with pictures, then message each other and join discussion groups.

SAGA Zone, was developed by the Saga Group company which specialises in products and services for the over 50s.

Saga Group chief executive Andrew Goodsell said: "The internet is a place where the over 50s are thriving. SAGA Zone is a place where they can mingle and chat about issues important to them, be they amusing or serious."
 
The oldest person signed up to the SAGA Zone website is aged 87.
 
A poll of 15,740 people aged over 50 in the UK showed that the "grey pound" was helping to drive the online economy.
 
Nearly three-quarters (73%) of respondents had bought flights online while the same percentage had bought books over the internet and 67% had bought electrical items.
 
The poll was carried out for Saga by market researchers Populus in August.

A survey this year by media regulator Ofcom found that older surfers make up a significant proportion of the internet population, and are much more likely to spend money online. Surfers over 50 account for nearly a third of all time spent online by British web users.

"It's a myth that older people are put off by technology," said Nick Parker, deputy editor of the Oldie Magazine. "Our experience is that older people are very effective users of the internet."

Sites such as Friends Reunited have proved popular among older surfers. Although there are no age limits on networks such as Facebook or MySpace, the sites are heavily populated by younger users.

SAGA Zone is not the first attempt to cash in on the social networking craze among affluent older surfers. American website Eons launched last year with a focus on the baby boom generation. But despite raising £16m from investors Eons has struggled in the popularity stakes and was forced to lay off a third of its 72 staff last month.

The Big names

MySpace The world's largest social networking site, which has more than 200 million users

Facebook Originally used by Harvard students, now has more than 50 million users

Bebo Twenty-five million people signed up in the past year - mostly teenagers

But if we can surmount the Himalayan task of pressing the right buttons, we are promised a rosy old age of exchanging personal profiles, and possibly even intimate details, with fellow-grandparents who are intimidated by Facebook and other social websites because they are dominated by the IT-literate and socially unrepressed young.
The grey generation is famously incapable of dealing with computer technology, and frequently has to call in an expert under 8 years old to log in to the internet, or even to deal with an incoming call on a mobile phone.

Never too old to surf

50% of over-55s have access to the web

7% look for love online

22% play games such as bingo

43% regularly buy and sell on eBay

Sources: Times database, Office for National Statistics, Ofcom