83-year-old Man Champions the Internet for Older People

Peter Oakley a pensioner from Leicester is one of a growing population of older people living alone. However, he has successfully tackled the problem of loneliness and boredom by joining YouTube and posting videos which have become very popular.

Mr Oakley was also a poster boy for the recent Silver Surfers' Day that set up to encourage more older people to go online.

It was in 2006 that Mr Oakley signed up to YouTube using the jokey name of Geriatric1927. He had lost his wife in 1998 and after that felt he needed to make a new life for himself with new friends and interests. It was at that point that he decided to buy a computer.

Mr Oakley said: "I thought having a computer and the internet and would enable me to have a life. That didn’t really work because I went into chat rooms which were full of kids. But somebody mentioned YouTube. In everyday life, the old don’t have communications with the young outside the family, but the internet can address that.”

In the drive to get more older people online, internet entrepreneur and the Government's "UK digital champion" Martha Lane Fox founded The Race Online 2010 charity. Recently, the charity has launched a range of refurbished computers available at less than £100, and has also signed up 100,000 volunteers from various companies and organisations to make available a host of new social and economic opportunities for older users. The initiative will also make it easier for governmental online communication with citizens, especially older people.

Mr Oakley is full of praise for the internet and hails these recent developments with enthusiasm and positivity. He says: "The internet is a wonderful tool for information, education and communication, I work with a friend in America who gives instructional lessons to his friends in a community centre, and has organised high-school students to come and give lessons one to one, and he reports the wonderful friendships that have developed between the old and the young.”

What older initiates to the internet need is, as research from the BBC has recently shown, a friendly face to offer reassurance and encouragement.

Mr Oakley adds that here relatives can really help to bridge the gap between older people and ever advancing technology. New products will help too as Google's new Chromebook will offer new secure access to the internet across the generations and adds: “Chromebook will be a revolution in new ways of computing.”

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