Almost half of 8 to 17-year-olds have been scammed online

For Safer Internet Day 2025 (11^th February), new research released by the UK Safer Internet Centre (UKSIC), coordinators of the day in the UK, reveals that exposure to scams is a regular part of life online for young people, with 79% of 8 to 17-year-olds coming across scams online at least once a month, almost half (45%) at least once a week, and 20% seeing scams online every day.
 
The research found that almost half of 8 to 17-year-olds (46%) have been scammed online and 9%, including 8-year-olds, have lost money to an online scam before – highlighting the critical need for more support to tackle online crime and help young people stay safe online.
 
Now, more than ever, we need to respond to this as for children and their parents and carers the situation seems to be getting worse. The research found that 83% of parents and carers feel there are more scams than ever before, a view shared by almost half of children (47%). In addition, 81% of parents and carers and 43% of teens feel that online scams are getting more convincing, and around a third of young people (32%) worry that the use of new technology, such as gen AI, will make scams much harder to identify.
 
The UKSIC reveals these findings as part of Safer Internet Day 2025, the UK’s largest online safety awareness campaign, which is focussing on the issue of online scams this year, following consultation with children and young people. The UK Safer Internet Centre coordinates Safer Internet Day each year in the UK, supported by thousands of organisations to reach millions of young people, parents, carers, and educators across the country, giving them the vital information, resources and support they need to keep young people safe online.
 
The UKSIC hope the resources provided this Safer Internet Day can spark productive discussions and signpost effectively to further help if young people or the adults around them are worried about a potential scam online, as well as
help address the fact that 74% of young people want to learn more about how to spot scams online.
 
 
UKSIC Director, Will Gardner OBE, says: “This Safer Internet Day, we want to put the importance of protecting children from online scams on the agenda. For too long, young people have been overlooked, yet our research clearly demonstrates how much of an impact online scams can have on them.
Young people play an important role in both protecting themselves and others, including their parents and carers, from online scams. At the same time, they rely on their parents and carers for support when navigating the risk of scams. This Safer Internet Day, we want to support this intergenerational learning, on an issue facing and directly affecting children and their parents and carers alike.”

Tech Minister, Baroness Jones, said:
“The normalisation of scams online is a shocking trend. As Safer Internet Centre’s research shows, fraudsters are clearly targeting vulnerable young people who should be able to connect with friends and family without being subject to a barrage of scams.
 
“Whilst raising awareness amongst young people and parents is important, the onus to spot scams should not be on children. Technology companies have a responsibility to ensure they aren’t providing a hiding place for fraudsters. From next month under the Online Safety Act, firms will have to take active steps to tackle illegal content like scams to protect people using their sites.”
 
The scams young people are experiencing online
The research found that young people are most commonly becoming victims of
fake giveaways, phishing scams and fake websites, closely followed by online shopping scams, including
fake ticket sales, and trust trades (for example in online games). As a result, almost a fifth of young people (18%) know someone their age who has lost money to an online scam, whilst around 1 in 10 (9%) – including children as young as 8 – have lost money themselves.
 
Young people are seeing scams online in a range of places, with social media platforms (35%) being the number one space where young people encounter online scams, including 30% of children aged 12 and under. This is followed by email (17%) and online games (15%), with those aged 8 to 11 being notably more likely (at 22%)
to experience scams in online games than their older counterparts.
 
The emotional impact of online scams on young people
Being scammed online has a wide range of negative emotional impacts for young people. Almost half of those who have been scammed (47%) felt angry and annoyed, and many felt upset or sad (39%), worried or stressed (31%), embarrassed (28%), or shocked (28%). Worryingly, over a quarter (26%) of those who have fallen victim say they blamed themselves, increasing to an even higher 37% for 17-year-olds.
 

This emotional impact, and a culture of victim-blaming surrounding online scams, is harming young people and too often
preventing them from seeking help if they are scammed online, with almost half of young people (47%) saying that they believe embarrassment is the top barrier to this. Other obstacles include the feeling that it’s their fault and they’ll be blamed (41%), as well as the worry that they’ll get into trouble (40%), for example, having their device taken away from them.
 
How young people are taking action
The research found that young people are already using strategies to detect scams, including developing their own gut instinct alongside identifying other warning signs, such as being put under pressure to act or do something quickly. 87% of young people would block the person or profile posting or sharing a potential scam; and the vast majority would
delete it (84%); or check what they had seen with a parent or carer (79%).    

Young people are also taking action to help protect others; almost half (49%) have helped their friends identify if something online is a scam, for example. We also found that almost two thirds (62%) of young people said that they believe they have a responsibility to educate their friends and family about the issue. Despite taking these steps, many young people are still being scammed and we must do more to prevent this.
 
Parental concerns and their impact
63% of parents and carers worry about being a victim of an online scam, with 34% feel that this is likely to happen to them. These concerns are justified given that 35% of parents and carers have been scammed online themselves, with 31% losing money to an online scam before.
 
With almost three quarters of young people (72%) saying they’d turn to their parent or carer if they were worried about an online scam, and 79% of young people saying they would check with a parent or carer if they thought they saw a scam online, there needs to be greater support to help parents and carers play a strong role in educating and advising their children on this issue, as well as giving them the skills to keep themselves and their children safe.
 
 Intergenerational learning and support

Scams present something of a shared problem to both young people and their parents and carers, and the research from UKSIC reveals that, as well as receiving support and advice from parents and carers, young people are actively supporting their parents and carers to stay safe from scams, with 40% of parents and carers saying their child has taught them how to spot online scams.
 
This intergenerational exchange and support is vital, and is something that Safer Internet Day can encourage, as we look to generate key conversations about scams in homes and schools across the country.
 
 Read the full research report and exec summary: Research – UK Safer Internet Centre
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About Safer Internet Day
 
Safer Internet Day 2025 will take place on the 11^th of February 2025, with celebrations and learning based around the theme ‘Too good to be true? Protecting yourself and others from scams online‘.
 
Safer Internet Day is the UK’s biggest celebration of online safety. Each year, the UK Safer Internet Centre covers an online issue or theme that speaks about the things young people are seeing and experiencing online. Created in consultation with young people across the UK, this year, Safer Internet Day will be focusing on the issue of scams online and, for young people, how they can protect themselves and others, as well as what support is available to them.
 
Safer Internet Day is supported by thousands of organisations – including government departments, industry bodies, charities, schools, police services, and more – with activities running across the country. This includes a Live Lesson from the BBC, which in 2024 reached hundreds of thousands of children.
 
The UK Safer Internet Centre has created a range of free resources, top tips, and quizzes for use with young people of all ages, to help educators and professionals – whether as part of a school, charity, youth group, police service, business, library or any group working with young people – to deliver engaging and interactive Safer Internet Day sessions. There are also supporting videos to work with these resources, created by the BBC and available on BBC Teach. The activities will educate and support children and young people, as well as provide valuable opportunities to hear from them
about their knowledge of scams online, and any experiences they may have had.
 
To find out more about Safer Internet Day 2025 and how you can get involved, visit https://saferinternet.org.uk/safer-internet-day/safer-internet-day-2025.
 
 
About the UK Safer Internet Centre
The UK Safer Internet Centre (UKSIC), established in 2011, is a leading global partnership helping to make the internet a great and safe place for everyone. We provide support and services to children and young people, adults facing online harms, and professionals working with children.
 
We are unique. Formed of three charities, Childnet, Internet Watch Foundation and SWGfL, we work together to identify threats and harms online and then create and deliver critical advice, resources, education and interventions that help keep children and young people, and adults, safe. We share our best practices across the UK and globally. 
 
The UK Safer Internet Centre coordinates Safer Internet Day each year, reaching millions of young people, parents and carers, and educators across the UK, giving them the vital information and support they need to keep young people safe online.
 
Methodology
The quantitative survey was conducted online by Censuswide in September-October 2024, with a representative sample of 2,013 children, aged 8-17 years, and the same number of their parents (aged 21+) (4,026 in total). Censuswide is a full-service research consultancy specialising in consumer and B2B research. This research was conducted on Censuswide’s education network and participants under the age of 16 were contacted via their parents or guardians.

Childnet also consulted its Digital Leaders, Digital Champions and its Youth Advisory Board, aged 8-17, in December 2024.