BLUE Peter is one of those BBC productions that has carved itself a place in the very fabric of British life.

For one generation of Blue Peter viewers, Valerie Singleton’s name remains a passport back to childhood days of adventures with sticky-backed plastic.

Fast forward through the intervening decades, and Ms Singleton now pops up on a computer screen rather than a TV screen.

She has pre-recorded 17 video tutorials loaded on to a new computer aimed at users over 60 and launched last week. The simplified desktop – called SimplicITy – has just six buttons directing users to basic tasks and functions such as email and chat.

According to government figures, more than 6m people over the age of 65 have never used the internet. 

That’s a statistic that has doubtless featured in the business plan drawn up by the company making the new computer.  

As well as providing her tutorial support, Ms Singleton is also a partner in the team behind the whole product. The computer has been developed in partnership with Wessex Computers and a website aimed at older people called discount-age, set up by Ms Singleton.

She said she was shocked by the number of older people who do not have computers, and believes fear of the unknown is putting many people off. SimplicITy has no log-in screen when started up, and contains no drop-down menus. It opens straight to a front page called “square one” containing separate buttons for email, browsing the web, folders, online chat and a user profile.

The email system is a modified version of an Italian design. All users with this providers' address will be able to chat to each other via the “chat” button.

The computer is built using a free operating system that can be customised by users. 

All credit to those behind the project for their efforts to bridge this particular part of the  UK's digital divide. But aren’t they being just a little bit patronising? Sales figures will tell.

However bruised some egos may be, the idea of making the internet more widely and easily available is to be applauded.

The buyers and users of this new personal computer are unlikely to be using their machine for business. But, as long as they remain off-line, they are missing out on the opportunities enjoyed by the rest of us – including current Blue Peter viewers.