Phishing scams are nothing new in our modern world. What began as emails about earning unimaginable amounts of money, has since evolved into scams that can be incredibly intricate. With advancements going on in machine learning, scammers can slip in fake testimonials from important and influential people. This can make it all the more convincing for children and even adults. This represents a problem of computer and internet illiteracy across the globe, where innocent people can be tricked and manipulated worldwide. This hasn’t become any more common than on YouTube, a seemingly secure site that nearly 2 billion people use according to YouTube itself.
YouTube as a part of its business model needs a majority of its creators to deem it profitable. Ads are a way to supplement this. While it hasn’t been perfect in benefiting the creators, it makes it possible for the company to collect more information easily. The ads themselves aren’t very well regulated however. While it does filter content for children fairly well, this can be terrible news in the form of malicious ads that are targeted towards a younger audience.
While this has been mostly supplemented with the removal of targeted ads on children's content by YouTube according to Bloomberg in 2019. This still doesn’t stop the types of ads that could potentially pull in a younger audience. This is because, while a good number of children are closely regulated to restricted versions of the site, kids in their tweens and teens will go on the site, even though the guidelines say they can’t, and they will get caught in ads that can trick people into clicking links and inputting information they really shouldn’t. There are some big draw-ins for kids that can lead to theft of personal information.
Some methods of attack for these groups are pulling them in with some kind of prize. This could be things like a cool device like an iPad or Phone. It can also be smaller, tangible things like fake “free” downloads for games or in-game currency. These types of prizes are touted as exclusive and try to encourage some form of urgency, to give the participant less time to consider the potential consequences of participating in these scams. There's a way to help prevent this kind of thing from happening not just on YouTube but on the internet as a whole.
First, you need your kids to know about what scams are and how to avoid them at an early age. This has become more and more essential as children are starting to have increasing amounts of influence of what they can do on the internet. Second, making sure you keep an eye on what they could be watching, to make sure that they aren’t being led into a trap by someone with malicious intentions. Lastly, assure them not to be afraid to ask for help when something goes wrong. Leave yourself open so, when they mess up you can possibly remedy it or get help sooner.
This kind of problem has been something very unique to the 21st century, with even adults unsure of how to travel the internet and seemingly innocent sites like YouTube. While scams like these will never really go away and as better and more advanced methods of scamming become more commonplace, everyone needs to remain vigilant. This is because, while understanding the situation doesn’t permanently protect you from scams like this, being knowledgeable gives you the upper hand.
