Get Online internet use campaign under way

Being online can save you money is one of the key messages of the campaign

A major drive to get more people to use the internet has started, with the aim of persuading reluctant users that the web can save them money and time.

The BBC will be involved in the Get Online campaign, which will see some celebrities going online for the first time.

More than nine million Britons have never used the internet, and they tend to be more elderly and less well-off.

Events promoting web use will take place across the UK.

Web training

BBC technology correspondent Rory Cellan-Jones says the campaign will hammer home a simple message, that the internet can save you money.

Research by UK Online Centres, which was set up by the government to provide public access to computers, found that a third of new internet users reckoned they had already saved more than £100 by being online.

Among the events, companies including Google and McDonalds will descend on Bridlington in Yorkshire to offer free web training in a town where one in four people are not online.

BBC programmes will also take part, with Sir Terry Wogan acting as a web ambassador and a character in Radio 4's The Archers having their first computer lesson.