To celebrate Safer Internet Day 2025 members of the SuperAwesome team have created a series of blogs to spotlight some of the ways we’re building a safer internet for the next generation. We’ll be covering personal perspectives as well as actionable insights and learnings from trusted data privacy and online safety experts. In this blog, our Information Security Lead, Ashley Dunn, examines online scams and their effect on young people.

While the global theme of this year’s Safer Internet Day is ‘Together for a Better Internet’, here in the UK this year’s celebration centred on online scams and asked participants to look more closely at their online interactions and question – is this ‘too good to be true?’

The theme particularly focused on how young people can protect themselves and highlighted some of the support that is available to them. As the Information Security Lead at SuperAwesome, I have a passion for online safety, and in this article, I’ll share some practical advice for young people who are looking to navigate digital online spaces safely.

The Issue of Online Scams 

Online scams are a growing problem. Young people today are digital natives that have access to online devices at much earlier ages making them particularly vulnerable.

We know that scammers often use sophisticated tactics to trick people into giving them their personal information, money and in the worst cases, pictures and common types of scams include phishing, smishing, and catfishing.  For many young people they may be afraid, embarrassed or ashamed when something bad happens to them online, making them reluctant to ask for help.  

Many organisations, including ours, run Phishing Simulations and provide Security Awareness training to try to normalise conversations around online safety. Here at SuperAwesome, we try to make this fun, and so far I think this has been pretty successful. 

One of the key things associated with awareness training is ensuring we uphold a ‘No Blame’ culture. That is to say that we know things can go wrong and it’s more important to understand how we can learn from this than to apportion blame. In turn this promotes a culture of trust.

So How Can Young People Protect Themselves and Others?

There are several things young people can do to protect themselves and others from online scams:

We know that more and more AI is being used by threat actors and scammers to obtain information from their targets and that their tactics are becoming more sophisticated, convincing and difficult to recognise. Many of these scams, could take the form of;

  • Social media invites (think TikTok, Snapchat, Insta etc)
  • WhatsApp chats
  • SMS Text Messages
  • Emails

What Practical Steps Can We Take To Help Kids and Teens?

  • Talk to them about what information they share online and how sharing pictures or personal information could be used to blackmail them
  • Help them to be wary of clicking on links or attachments in emails or messages from people they don’t know
  • Help them use strong passwords, different passwords for different services and keep them safe.  My family uses a Password Manager to make life easier for example
  • Let them know that if something goes wrong that they should talk to a trusted adult.  If they‘re unsure about something or if they think they have been scammed, open communication can help to prevent an issue from escalating

Support Available to Young People

There are several organizations that offer support to young people that have been scammed or who are worried about online safety. These include: