Young people with SEND more at risk from online financial scams, expert warns
India Dunkley
Thursday, January 12, 2023
Children with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) are at greater risk from financial scams online amid an increase in young people being targeted, a youth work leader has warned.
Sharon Davies, chief executive of Young Enterprise, has raised concerns that increasing financial pressures, as well as more time being spent online, has sparked an increase in financial scams targeted at young people
Davies told CYP Now that the types of scams being detected range from fake cryptocurrency investments, “direct message (DM) to collab” offers, day trader training and pyramid schemes promoting products that don’t exist.
Most of these scams prey on the incentive to “get rich quick” and encourage young people to financially invest in something with the promise of increased returns.
Davies also warned of a rise in “finfluencers” - finance influencers who encourage investment, trading and entrepreneurship - which have significantly grown in popularity on platforms such as Instagram and TikTok.
Research by CYP Now revealed that one search for #finflucencer on Instagram delivers nearly 15,000 results instantly. A large proportion of these posts are predicted to be promoting scams.
Davies said: “Children with SEND are particularly vulnerable as they may not have the same understanding around what is happening which may increase risks of financial manipulation”.
She also expressed concern that “scammers may be aware of this [vulnerability] and take advantage of children with SEND”.
Davies added that in a bid to reduce the risk of scams aimed at vulnerable children, including those with SEND, parents, guardians, and those working with children must increase their knowledge of online harms.
She said: “Educators, parents and guardians need to be as informed as possible. This entails identifying safeguarding concerns, understanding why children with SEND can be more vulnerable and creating a safe, online culture.
“For children with SEND, we believe this level of education and support is all the more crucial and as scammers regularly adopt new tactics, we need to ensure the financial education we deliver is current, reflective of new trends that appear in the financial world and resonates with today’s generation of young people.”
These concerns come after the Secretary of State for Digital Media, Culture and Sport, Michelle Donelan, published an open letter which detailed planned changes to legislation via the Online Harms Bill which is currently being passed through parliament
Protecting children from harmful and inappropriate content by removing posts including pornography, the promotion of eating disorders and depictions of violence will, under the new legislation, be the responsibility of social media companies.
These changes, which also include harsher sanctions for companies which fail to remove harmful content, mean that social media companies will “finally be held legally responsible for the content of their sites… they will be forced to protect their user”, Donelan said
The letter is addressed specifically to parents and guardians about online safeguarding but there is no mention about the risk of financial scams, and their increased risk for children with SEND.
Tiktok and Instagram have been contacted for comment.
