Digital natives are comfy with know-how, however could also be extra uncovered to on-line scams and different threats than they assume
12 Aug 2025
•
,
5 min. learn
It’s Worldwide Youth Day on August 12, a second to have fun the contribution of younger individuals to society. A giant a part of this contribution is digital, in keeping with the United Nations, which additionally notes that “younger persons are main the cost in digital adoption and innovation”.
But regardless of their catchy moniker, digital natives are usually not essentially impervious to on-line threats. Fairly the reverse, in reality. Analysis reveals that they’re probably extra uncovered to danger, and extra blasé concerning the influence this could have on their lives. That’s a worrying mixture. Right here’s what younger individuals can do to remain protected and the way their mother and father can assist.
The paradox of digital natives
A specific set of circumstances makes youthful generations probably extra uncovered to cyber danger. First, they’re extra prone to be on-line than their older counterparts, in keeping with an in depth examine from the Nationwide Cybersecurity Alliance. Gen Z (65%) together with Millennials (64%) are way more prone to report that they’re all the time related. And Gen Z (38%) and Millennials (36%) are extra possible than the Silent Technology (23%) to have over 10 on-line accounts. Extra accounts means extra publicity to cyberthreats.
But on the similar time, there are indicators that Gen Z specifically has comparatively poor digital hygiene. The identical report claims that:
- 46% of Gen Z admit to sharing delicate work data with AI with out their employer’s data, versus 38% of all respondents in work,
- Simply 58% of Gen Z use distinctive passwords for every account all or more often than not, versus 71% of Child Boomers,
- Simply 56% of Gen Z use multifactor authentication (MFA), versus 71% of Boomers and 70% of Gen X,
- Solely 44% of Gen Z set up updates when notified “all the time” or “fairly often,”
- 68% of Gen Z declare to “prioritize” on-line safety, versus a lot larger numbers of Silent Gen (91%) and Child Boomers (89%).
The figures chime with separate analysis from HP, which finds that youthful persons are much less inclined to observe company safety insurance policies. Virtually half of 18-24 year-olds say safety instruments are a hindrance, and almost a 3rd (31%) declare to have tried to bypass insurance policies to get their work achieved.
Children within the firing line
All of which can clarify why the Nationwide Cybersecurity Alliance stories that youthful persons are extra prone to fall for phishing and on-line courting scams, versus, say, Gen X and Boomers. Equally, Gen Z and Millennials usually tend to lose cash or knowledge to on-line scams than Boomers and Silent Technology.
Whether or not it’s all the way down to impatience, naivety, overconfidence or different elements, younger persons are probably extra prone to put themselves in positions of hazard. In response to the UK’s Nationwide Crime Company (NCA), 60% of cash mules are beneath the age of 30. Older members of society could also be extra risk-aware, and rich sufficient to not discover such a prospect enticing.
What are the most important on-line threats dealing with younger individuals?
To an extent, the cyberthreats dealing with kids on-line are usually not dissimilar to these their mother and father might face. However there are potential psychological, emotional and sensible the explanation why the next could also be extra acute:
- Sextortion: This might embrace victims being tricked into sending express photographs/movies after which blackmailed into sending extra, or cash. Or it might contain using AI nudifying instruments that create comparable photographs, which might then be used as leverage for extortion. (One other menace is sextortion scams, the place cybercriminals ship emails claiming to have put in malware on the sufferer’s pc that allegedly enabled them to report the person watching porn.)
- Account takeover: Social media, gaming and different accounts are in danger from hijacking by brute-force assaults, particularly if victims don’t use sturdy, distinctive passwords and MFA.
- On-line scams: Social media advertisements and messages are a rising conduit for funding scams and different too-good-to-be true affords designed to harvest victims’ private data and trick them into sending money and crypto. Typically utilizing deepfake superstar ‘endorsements’ or hacked accounts, these scams create a way of urgency and pleasure which enchantment to a concern of lacking out (FOMO). Phishing emails and texts are additionally widespread vectors for such threats.
- Malicious downloads: Apps, video games and pirated content material are sometimes booby-trapped with malware designed to steal data/passwords, listen in on conversations, flood gadgets with adware, and extra. Price range-conscious kids could also be extra inclined to search for such content material on third-party app shops, boards and different websites.
Some tricks to keep protected
The identical greatest practices apply to kids as they do to any web person. To mitigate the above and different dangers, take into account the next:
- All the time persist with official app shops, and by no means obtain pirated content material. That ought to scale back the probability of unwittingly putting in something malicious.
- Test the critiques and developer popularity earlier than downloading any new app, in case it has been related to scams or cyber threats prior to now.
- Hold the working system and different software program updated, on all PCs and cell gadgets. This can guarantee they’re on the most recent, most safe model.
- Deploy safety software program from a trusted supplier to all PCs and gadgets. This can assist to maintain malware off the machine/gadget and forestall malicious downloads.
- Be looking out for phishing. By no means click on hyperlinks or open attachments from unsolicited messages. If you might want to, test immediately with the sender if a message is official or not (however not by replying to the message or calling a quantity on it). Hover over the sender area to see if it matches the model sending you a message.
- Watch out for social media scams. By no means click on on advertisements you see on-line, and concentrate on the menace from deepfake ‘endorsements’. Even messages coming from mates can’t be trusted as their account might have been hacked.
- Revisit your social media accounting settings to boost privateness. Oversharing can present menace actors with data to focus on you with convincing phishing assaults, and even allow them to guess safety clues and hack your account. And it might probably expose content material that’s subsequently used to coach deepfake/nudifying instruments.
- Bear in mind: if one thing’s too good to be true, it often is.
Digital natives could also be instinctively comfy interacting with related applied sciences. However they may also be over-trusting, impulsive and impatient on-line. The important thing to altering behaviors amongst this cohort is to not lecture, however to share data, and talk danger with empathy and understanding. Good luck.
