According to an international study published in the peer-reviewed British Journal of Educational Studies, disadvantaged youth are more vulnerable to email scams and require more protection. Findings based on more than 170,000 students aged 15 show that one in five from low-income families or deprived areas could fall victim to phishing. This is much higher than the probability for the age group overall. Email scams leave people vulnerable to identity theft, putting young people at risk of financial fraud and having their savings stripped.
The most vulnerable are those who also have poor learning skills according to the data from 38 countries including the UK, US and Japan. Furthermore, the study highlights that students who are taught about the dangers of digital fraud are just as likely to respond inappropriately to these emails as pupils who have received no specific education on the topic.
Author Professor John Jerrim says this highlights a gap in education provision. He is now urging schools to provide more – and better quality – teaching on how to recognize online harms including phishing emails. “Socio-economically disadvantaged groups are – at least in some countries – at greater risk from phishing attacks than their more advantaged peers,” says Professor Jerrim from University College London in England.
“This is largely driven by socio-economic differences in cognitive abilities. Unfortunately, current attempts by schools to address this issue do not seem to be particularly effective.
“Teenagers taught in the classroom about the risks appear to be just as likely to take inappropriate action. More needs to be done to help young people navigate what is becoming an increasingly complex and dangerous online world.
“This is particularly true for some of the most vulnerable groups who are most at risk of falling for attempts at digital fraud.”
More than 3 billion spam emails are sent every day and phishing is one of the most common attempts at cyber fraud. Current research into who is most susceptible to this crime tends to focus on older people, not school-age children. Little is known about the efficacy of schools’ attempts to teach young people how to recognize and react appropriately.
No gender difference was found – boys were just as likely to respond as girls. However, teenagers from socio-economically disadvantaged backgrounds were markedly more likely to click the link. The biggest gap was based on cognitive skill with a quarter of low achieving students saying they believed clicking was the appropriate response. This compared with only 5% of those in the top reading scores. The study also investigated whether students who receive instruction from their school about the dangers of phishing emails are at less risk of being fooled.
In addition, results showed ‘no clear evidence’ that students who received instruction from their school on phishing email dangers were at less risk. Limitations of the study included the fact it is based on responses to survey questions. Professor Jerrim said this meant the research did not necessarily capture how teenagers would respond in real life. (ANI)
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