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Digital Unite is partnering with Ofcom to deliver the sixth annual Silver Surfers' Day, on Friday 25 May 2007. Devised in 2002 by DU, Silver Surfers' Day is the biggest annual media literacy campaign aimed at older people.
32% of parents and grandparents havebeen taught or encouraged to surf the internet by a young person aged between 13 to 16 years.
On Silver Surfers' Day, hundreds of organisations of all hues – public, private, large, small – use specially prepared SSD resources to run free, or almost free, IT taster sessions for older people in their community.
Silver Surfers' Day 06 saw over 500 Event Holders run Silver Surfers' Day Events. By mid April 2007, Digital Unite is delighted to be able to say we have already 100 Event Holders registered to take part on 25 May 2007: it really is going to be bigger and better than ever this year thanks to the support of BT’s Internet Rangers.
BT runs a very successful initiative called Internet Rangers, which celebrates the role young people play in helping their elders get online. BT will be encouraging Internet Rangers to organise and support Silver Surfers' Day Events on May 25 at their schools and from other suitable venues they may be connected to.
Mike Hughes, head of the BT Digital Inclusion Campaign explains:
"BT coined the term "Internet Rangers" following research which highlighted that nearly a third of parents and grandparents, 32 per cent, have been taught or encouraged to surf the internet by a young person aged between 13 to 16 years.
Digital exclusion is a serious problem, and as young people are often the experts when it comes to the internet, it makes sense for them to show the adults how it's done!"
Emma Solomon, Managing Director, Digital Unite said:
"We devised the idea of national Silver Surfers' Day in 2002, and each year have encouraged hundreds of events to be held across the UK devoted to helping older people get online. Last year we reached an estimated 17,000 older people through over 500 events held across the country.
We are delighted to have BT support this year and to add an intergenerational flavour to Silver Surfers' Day. Internet Rangers will be excellent promoters and supporters of Silver Surfers' Day Events. Any young person can be an Internet Ranger on Silver Surfers' Day, they just need to be prepared to give a little time out of their day to help an older person get online, and access to an Internet ready computer to do so."
'Media literacy' is the 'upgraded' version of IT/ digital literacy, and so coined because as technologies converge our assimilation of these possibilities and the skills required to make use of them needs a whole new form of literacy.
In today's society, media literacy has become fundamentally important. It can make life easier, cheaper and more fun.
It can make a huge change for the better in older people's everyday lives, their level of independence, access to people and services, and general well being and contentment.
For Silver Surfers' Day/Digital Unite:
Gill Adams
e: gill.adams@digitalunite.net
t: 0870 241 5091
w: www.silversurfersday.org
For BT Internet Rangers or the BT Digital Inclusion Campaign:
Emmanuel Xirogiannis
e: emmanuel.xirogiannis@trimediahc.com
t: 0207 025 7513
w: www.btinternetrangers.co.uk
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