So far, 2022 has seen a close to 20% increase in child victims of cybercrime, while the financial losses from these crimes has more than doubled.
This is according to Surfshark research.
According to the FBI Internet Crime Centre reports (2015-2022), there were nearly 20% more child victims of cybercrime in 2022 than the year prior. To put this into perspective, seven children per day faced online exploitation in 2022.
Already, this decade has already seen nearly 8 000 child victims of cybercrime. That means over half of the children that fell victim to cybercrime since 2015 were targeted over the last three years.
And financial losses saw an even greater year-over-year increase than the number of victims, rising by more than two times. To put this into perspective, the average loss per victim in 2021 was $92, while the number grew to $223 in 2022. In fact, 2022 saw the highest loss per victim this decade.
Overall, from 2015 to 2022, the FBI recorded 14 000 child victims of cybercrime, totaling 2,9-million in financial losses from these crimes.
“The increasing number of cybercrimes against children is alarming,” says Surfshark’s spokeswoman Elena Babarskaite. “It is vital for anyone noticing abuse to take proactive measures to protect children, such as reporting directly to online platforms and local authorities. Taking action and educating people is the way to make this problem less severe in our society.”