The poll found that there are now twice as many women over 50 using social networking and blogging sites than girls under 18, demonstrating the explosion in access to and use of the internet among the older generation.
The results were revealed at the IAB's recent Women Online Forum, which concluded that social media is currently the biggest trend to be sweeping the online world among women.
So-called silver surfers have been on the rise for a number of years, but this latest survey reveals the extent to which new technologies are now being harnessed by older people as a means to stay in touch with friends and family.
The results of the study could also be a wake-up call to advertisers, many of whom have recently been criticised for stereotyping older people and ignoring them in the belief that they do not spend much money.
Brent Bouchez, founder and chairman of New York marketing firm Five0, recently wrote on Forbes.
com that such conceptions may have been true 30 years ago but no longer hold water.
Almost half of all baby boomers in the UK belong to at least one social networking site, a new study shows.
According to a survey from InSites Consulting, four in ten UK web users over the age of 50 use social networking sites - a figure that amounts to 4.
7 million mature social networkers nationwide.
Around 93 per cent of respondents said they know about popular social networking site Facebook, while 35 per cent said they actually use it.
UK boomers are much more enthusiastic about social networks than their Continental cousins, with just 22 per cent of Dutch boomers engaging with the platform.
The survey found that online professional networks such as LinkedIn are also popular with older internet users, although to a much lesser extent than social sites.
"The figures show that these are not just a few isolated individuals using sites such as Facebook," commented Steven Van Belleghem of InSites Consulting.
"We are seeing a clear rising trend amongst the over 50s to make more use of social networks in order to communicate and stay in touch with their family and friends.
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