This article is really about spam scams and the elderly, but this tidbit of information is interesting in any context:

Nielsen/NetRatings reported in November that online usage by people 65 and older grew by about 25 percent, from 7.6 million in October 2002 to 9.6 million a year later, making them the fastest-growing segment in online usage.

I took a peek at the Nielsen/NetRatings site (here) and found a few other interesting morsels:

Internet Penetration (link)

Nielsen/NetRatings, the global standard for Internet audience measurement and analysis, reports that nearly 75 percent or 204.3 million Americans have access to the Internet from home. In comparison, Internet access penetration hovered around 66 percent in February 2003, rising nine percentage points year-over-year.

“In just a handful of years, online access has managed to gain the type of traction that took other media decades to achieve,” said Kenneth Cassar, director of strategic analysis, Nielsen//NetRatings.

WebSurfer Political Participation (link - PDF)

Nielsen/NetRatings, the global standard for Internet audience measurement and analysis, reports today that Web surfers are more politically active than the general population as the online population reported greater levels of voter registration and political activity than the general population.

Nielsen/NetRatings Plan Political View data revealed that 86 percent of the online audience aged 18+ reported being registered voters (see Table 1). According to the U.S. Census Bureau, only 70 percent of the U.S. Population was registered to vote during the last presidential elections. During the 2000 presidential elections, only 60 percent of the U.S. population actually cast a ballot. In comparison, the Political View data revealed that 77 percent of the online population reported to have voted in the 2000 presidential election.