You can help prevent scammers taking advantage of young people by joining Global Action Plan's campaign.
I've never felt so stressed. Of all the situations I've dealt with in my personal life, dealing with that situation... what is going on?
Young person who shared his experience of being scammed aged 16
Scams are a growing and worrying part of young people’s lives online. Nearly 1 million children have been scammed online in the last year and while the average financial loss is £103, the hidden emotional cost is much higher.
Children and their parents suffer emotional and financial impact at the hands of online scammers, often feeling unwilling or unable to tell anyone what’s happened. According to new research, 69% of parents whose children had been scammed reported their child became anxious and more prone to worrying, whilst teachers noted heightened conflicts with classmates (19%) along with anxiety and distress (43%).1
Scammers must be held responsible for their actions. But better regulation of social media would also greatly reduce their impact.
Send a letter to your MP asking them to protect children from online scams.
Vodafone is supporting Global Action Plan's campaign to make tech platforms safe by design. Vodafone has created an hub of online resources to support parents and children in their conversations regarding online safety.
Find out more about why Global Action Plan are campaigning to create Safer Socials.
References
The parent and child research was conducted by Censuswide with 1,000 Parents of 11-16 year olds and 1,000 11-16 year olds (Nat Rep) between 30 January 2025 and 3 February 2025. Censuswide abide by and employ members of the Market Research Society which is based on the ESOMAR principles. Censuswide are also members of the British Polling Council.
The teacher research came from TeacherTapp, a daily survey app that asks questions of over 11,000 teachers each day and reweights the results to make them representative. Survey of up to 4,933 secondary school teachers, carried out by Teacher Tapp on 1 February 2025.