Online safety for care-experienced young people leaving care — new independence, new accounts and devices, and a higher exposure to financial scams, romance fraud, and exploitation.
Care leavers are young people, usually aged 16–25, who are moving from being looked after into independent living. It is a period of big change — a new home, managing money for the first time, setting up their own devices and accounts — and often with less of the family safety net their peers rely on. That combination can raise their exposure to financial scams, romance fraud, money-muling recruitment, and exploitation, all of which increasingly begin online.
Research by Become and the Children's Commissioner highlights how care leavers can face this transition with limited support. Online, that can mean no one to sense-check a 'too good to be true' message, an unexpected windfall, or a new online relationship. Care-experienced young people are also known to be targeted for criminal exploitation, including as money mules. Practical, non-patronising online-safety and financial-safety knowledge is part of preparing for independence.
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