Start conversations about online scams

Safer Internet Day 2025 will take place on the 11 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 we cover an online issue or theme that speaks about the things young people are seeing and experiencing online. To decide our theme for Safer Internet Day 2025 we spoke to young people across the UK about the online issues and topics that they wanted more support with. We found that the top issue mentioned by secondary aged pupils was scams, and for primary pupils it was gaming, closely followed by scams.

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.

We have created some advice for avoiding scams for children and young people and their families. This advice forms a great starting point for conversations about life online, as well as giving parents and carers some of the information they need to support their children. 

UK Safer Internet Centre (UKSIC) research into online scams

In Wales, we (UKSIC) found that 83% of young people come across online scams at least monthly, with 24%, including children as young as 8, seeing scams online every day.

Unfortunately, young people in Wales are not only seeing scams online but experiencing them themselves. We found that 15% of 8 to 17-year-olds know someone their age who has lost money to an online scam. Being scammed online has a wide range of negative emotional impacts for young people in Wales: 37% of those who have been scammed felt angry and annoyed, and many felt upset or sad (33%), worried or stressed (30%), embarrassed (26%), or shocked (19%). Worryingly, 21% of those who have fallen victim say they blamed themselves, increasing to an even higher 33% for 17-year-olds

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. In Wales, our research found that 86% of parents and carers feel there are more scams than ever before, a view shared by almost half of children (47%). In addition, 82% of parents and carers and 43% of teens feel that online scams are getting more convincing, and around a third of young people (29%) worry that the use of new technology, such as gen AI, will make scams much harder to identify.

Intergenerational learning

Although it may not always seem like it, our research found that the first place young people go for support if they experience a scam, or worry that something may be a scam is their parents and carers. 

We recognise that 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 to give them the skills to keep themselves and their children safe.

Scams present something of a shared problem to both young people and their parents and carers, and the research from the UK Safer Internet Centre (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 32% of parents and carers in Wales 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. 

Safer Internet Day resources

With 73% of 8 to 17-year-olds wanting to learn more about how to spot scams online, the Safer Internet Day resources are a vital tool for educators in this space. These free, engaging resources are available in English and Welsh, and can be downloaded from the UK Safer Internet Centre website, and from Hwb.

The resources are a great way of teaching about this pressing issue of scams online, giving young people the tools they need to spot a scam, as well as report, block or seek help if they see or experience a scam online.