Access to modern technology does indeed present problems to the elderly and other disadvantaged groups in our community.

May I offer a few words about the internet and the older Australian? The following is a copy of a letter I recently forwarded to the Consumers Association of SA Inc:

Put simply, access to the growing and increasingly important world of the internet is, for most older people, much too expensive.

As with many other misconceptions that governments and the community have about the elderly, it is generally assumed that older people have no interest in the internet, cannot understand it, do not expect to find much value in it, and thus (conveniently) have no special claim to any initiatives to make its access easier.

This is far from the truth. The internet is a tool for everyone of all ages. Contrary to ill-perceived wisdom, older folk have generally found the medium fascinating and useful. It is a fact of life that more and more commerce, information exchange and interpersonal communication is being conducted on the net. Many retirees and pensioners are using the net to communicate with their families, extract information, conduct their banking, make purchases and source their entertainment. They use it to exchange views with their peers and special interest groups. They have found email a convenient form of communication. For some of them, "Logging on" is as much a part of their daily life as other household routines.

They have found that using the internet is not a particularly difficult skill to learn. It is much easier than having to cope with task-specific applications such as advanced word processing or desktop publishing . The real problem for pensioners and others in reduced financial circumstances is the cost. Reliable computers with enough speed and memory for today's internet are expensive. This is unlikely to change in the immediate future. But something can be done about the cost of going on line.

Rigorous competition is forcing down the fees demanded by internet service providers. But the fees charged by the telephone companies are still outrageously prohibitive. And we must not forget that every time a connection drops out and the server is re-dialed adds another few cents to the bill. Telstra and others make huge annual profits, largely at the expense of the burgeoning number of internet users. It is high time government forced the telcos to reduce online access costs - especially to disadvantaged groups in our community, such as pensioners.

As someone said: "I'd like to see that".

Sincerely,

Jack Benlow