Cybercrime is increasingly a part of young people's everyday lives - The Finnish police publishes a guide to support discussing cyber topics

According to a study by the Finnish police, a significant number of young people aged 15 to 25 estimate that they have committed a cybercriminal act in the past year. In terms of the Finnish population, as many as 28.000 young people may commit cybercrime each year.

The study commissioned by the Finnish police and conducted by Taloustutkimus mapped the behavior of young people online, their attitudes towards operating in the online environment, and their experiences and participation in cyber-dependent crimes, such as data breach, denial-of-service-attacks or distributing malware.

The study shows, that encountering harmful activity and being lured into criminal activities are everyday occurrences for young people. Approximately half of the young people responding to the survey disclose that they have encountered harmful or suspicious activities online within the 12-month review period. In terms of the Finnish population, an estimated 90.000 youngsters have been the target of a data breach.

One in four young people have encountered requests to participate in activities online, that the young person suspected to be harmful or criminal, or that were later revealed to be criminal.

The nationally representative, population-based study mapped online behavior of 15 to 25-year-olds living in Finland between August 2024 and August 2025. 1065 young people responded to the online survey. This is the first Finnish study examining young people's attitudes towards and participation in cybercriminal activities.

New guide to help facilitate conversations between young people and adults

The Finnish police is publishing a guide for guardians and professionals, such as teachers and youth workers. The guide aims to help educators identify youth cybercrime as a phenomenon and to discuss the topic with youngsters.

− The guide was created in response to requests from stakeholders for an easy-to-use resource on how to prevent cybercrime among young people. Additionally, the goal is to support learning responsible online behavior with the youngster, says project lead Viivi Lehtinen from the Finnish National Bureau of Investigation.

Early intervention requires identifying the phenomenon

Cybercrime committed by young people typically does not start off as a serious crime, but they are often motivated by things such as willingness to experiment, curiosity, mischief or wanting to test their skills. A single cyber-criminal act, however, can have severe consequences. It can also be challenging for a young person to assess the real consequences of the cybercrime.

Cyberattacks targeting school environments, for example, are common amongst young people, and their acts typically mainly motivated by mischief. However, there are several cases known to the police, where a cyberattack that the young person intended to target a school as a form of mischief also disrupted the operation of other municipal systems. The attacks caused severe disruption to the municipality's residents as well as significant financial damage.

Cybercrime can dismantle the livelihood of a small business owner or lead to dissemination of sensitive information of a private person, causing severe and long-lasting consequences to the victim.

The majority of young people do not commit crimes. It is, however, important to understand cybercrime as a phenomenon to be able to intervene in the young person's activities on time. Identifying the phenomenon and early intervention play a key role in combatting cybercrime.

− Cybercrime is not just a technical issue, but a broader societal phenomenon that extensively impacts young people, and that needs to be talked about, highlights Detective Chief Inspector Jussi Larvanto from the National Bureau of Investigation. 

Including digital lives into everyday conversations

The digital environment is an integral part of young people's everyday lives. The online environment offers many opportunities and cyber skills will only become more essential as time goes on. Active use of online platforms, however, also exposes young people to various threats and criminal activity. Furthermore, tools and instructions necessary to commit crimes are increasingly available online, and committing a cybercrime does not necessarily require significant technical skill.

According to the study, most young people want to act legally online. However, their understanding of the rules of the web and the boundary between legal and illegal activities does not always develop as quickly as their technical skills, and young people may not recognize what kind of activities online are against the law.

− The online world lacks the signposting to clarify the difference between legal and illegal. Learning responsible online behavior also requires interest and curiosity from adults, and having open conversations with young people, reminds Larvanto.

The Finnish police recommends parents include navigating the digital environment in everyday conversations with the young person. If discussing the cyber environment is a normal part of their everyday life, it also easier for young people to talk about the situations they face online. In addition to learning cyber security skills with the youngster, it is good to together discuss how to act responsibly and legally online.

A guide from the police to support discussing cyber topics

Based on police experience, the importance of cyber topics is recognized, but the subject is often perceived as difficult. If guardians are unfamiliar with the young person's technical interests, it may also feel challenging to discuss the topic. Young people do not actively share their experiences online with adults either. According to the police study, only 14 per cent of young people had told a guardian or another trusted adult about the harmful or suspicious activity they had encountered.

Young people online -guide contains information about youth cybercrime, legislation on cybercrime in Finland, support for discussing cyber issues, as well as advice on how to deal with various problems online. The guide also provides tips on useful materials to help those interested in the subject to explore the cyber world in more depth, as well as examples of legal opportunities in cyber. The guide was created as a part of the National Bureau of Investigation's youth cybercrime prevention action plan, partially funded by the European Union. Youngsters interested in cyber were involved in creating the guide.

The Finnish police will approach schools nationwide to share information about the phenomenon and the guide with guardians and teachers.

You can read the guide here.

This guide is published as a part of the cyber offender prevention operations of the National Bureau of Investigation. Learn more about the youth cybercrime prevention action plan from the Finnish Police website.