In today’s digital playground, children aren’t just active participants - they’re making purchases, trading virtual goods, and even earning money online. As gaming, shopping, and social networking increasingly blur into a seamless online experience, our youngest citizens find themselves with newfound financial freedom but also facing increasing risks.  

Recent research from Parent Zone - a social enterprise that works to improve outcomes for children in the connected world - revealed 96% of children aged 13-18 are now transacting online, with 68% making purchases independently of their parent or guardian. More alarmingly, over a third of this age group have fallen victim to financial losses through accidental purchases, scams, and other exploitative tactics. Behind these statistics lie personal stories of shame, distress, and mental health impact that extend far beyond the financial loss itself. 

In March 2023, Parent Zone commissioned PUBLIC to conduct a thorough mapping of the current landscape of online child financial harm and exploitation (CFH/E), challenge areas, opportunities and levers for systemic changes. This is part of a three-year programme funded by Nominet Social Impact. PUBLIC’s research has informed evidence-based interventions for Parent Zone and their consortium partners to drive meaningful change in safeguarding children’s financial well-being.

It was against this backdrop that PUBLIC convened a closed roundtable in July 2024 for Parent Zone and their consortium partners, including the PSHE Association, Cifas, and University of York. Bringing together 13 safety tech leaders and online safety experts, the discussion sought to explore how online safety tech providers and civil society organisations can join forces to tackle online CFH/E. 

The roundtable kicked off by defining the problem. Child Financial Harm (CFH) was described as any harm caused to a child through direct financial loss, reputational damage, or exposure to risky financial behaviours. While Child Financial Exploitation and Abuse (CFE/A), on the other hand, includes scenarios where finances are used to facilitate child harm, exploitation, or abuse.  

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Three key themes emerged from the discussion: 

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1. Existing tech is promising, but incomplete without a nuanced understanding of CFH/E

Years of dedicated effort in the online safety tech sector have led to an impressive arsenal of tools and approaches designed to identify child sexual abuse material, detect grooming behaviours and design age-appropriate experiences. As the threat of Child Financial Harm and Exploitation (CFH/E) evolves, these existing technologies offer a promising foundation to leverage to meet this challenge.

Imagine a world where simple, frictionless age checks, supported by a range of age assurance methods, prevent children from high-risk features such as loot boxes, where device operating systems come with built-in harm detectors, and where AI-powered classifier tools can detect patterns of manipulation, grooming and financial exploitation across platforms. It’s possible - these technologies exist today. However, adapting these tools to effectively tackle CFH/E is not without challenges. 

The roundtable participants emphasised the need for a more granular understanding of how CFH/E manifests in different digital environments and real-world examples of different types of CFH/E to develop targeted, effective solutions. We need to understand the nuances of this emerging threat. What does financial grooming look like on a gaming platform versus a social media site? Or how do the patterns of victim and perpetrator behaviours differ across various online spaces? Or how does CFH/E manifest off-platform, moving from social media and gaming to gambling, e-commerce, banking services and offline activities? Understanding CFH/E therefore requires technical collaboration and access to sensitive online harm datasets as well as data sharing, and cross-platform insights.

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2. A call for social and regulatory action 

While participants were optimistic about the potential for existing technologies to tackle CFH/E effectively, the roundtable revealed a stark lack of awareness and urgency surrounding CFH/E. Despite the significant harm it causes, CFH/E appears to be a low priority for online platforms and the financial industry due to the focus on other illegal harms such as CSEA, and commercial priorities.

Participants expressed shared concern over the insufficient social and regulatory pressure to drive change. Online safety regulatory regimes have yet to fully address this emerging threat, while market awareness among both service providers and consumers remain limited. In turn, online platforms and financial institutions have not prioritised investment in tackling CFH/E.

To bridge this awareness gap, participants emphasised the crucial role of education and advocacy. Educating parents and supporting children with information about available safety tools could potentially influence market behaviour, encouraging companies to adopt stronger protective measures. Media literacy, along with financial literacy, interventions, can empower children and their families to better recognise and respond to CFH/E threats. The participants also stressed the need for compelling narratives and impactful personal stories that can generate external pressure, mobilise funding, and elevate CFH/E as a priority for online platforms, the broader tech and financial industry, and regulators.

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3. Cross-sector collaboration is the cornerstone of combating CFH/E 

If there was one resounding theme from the roundtable, it was that tackling CFH/E is a complex, multifaceted challenge which requires multiple players, partnerships and cross-sector collaboration. 

At the heart of this collaborative effort lies a fundamental need for a detailed, industry-accepted, machine-readable taxonomy for CFH/E to enable better data labelling, AI training and consistent response across platforms and sectors. Given how online CFH/E intersects with other online harms such as CSEA and fraud, and the often blurry line between healthy and manipulative interactions, a collective effort to develop a comprehensive taxonomy of CFH/E is crucial. 

But a taxonomy is just the beginning. Participants emphasised the need to analyse victim and perpetrator behaviour patterns across various platforms. They also highlighted the value of crowdsourcing reports, suggesting that trusted flagging programs could provide valuable insights into abuse patterns and cross-platform data to better inform technological solutions. 

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Seizing opportunities ahead

The roundtable itself underscored a shared appetite for continued engagement to translate intention into action that brings together children, parents, safety tech providers, civil society organisations, academia, financial institutions, and online platforms. 

We are calling for collaborative action in four opportunity areas highlighted during the roundtable:

• Understanding the nuances of how CFH/E manifests in different digital environments and cross-platform context requires technical collaboration.
• Education, media literacy and advocacy are essential to drive market awareness, and attract social and regulatory attention. 
• Developing a detailed, industry-accepted, machine-readable taxonomy of CFH/E is fundamental for enabling consistent responses.
• Last but not least, a collaborative effort is needed to analyse victim and perpetrator behaviour patterns to better inform solutions that could drive systemic impacts.

To find out more, or if you’re interested in working with us on this topic, reach out to our CFH/E subject matter expert Zixuan Fu at zixuan@public.io

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