Most young people who end up convicted of cybercrime didn’t set out to become criminals. New research from the University of East London shows that the path into serious online offending is often gradual transition from risky but seemingly harmless behaviour into something with very real legal consequences.
The findings, published in a new book by Professor Julia Davidson OBE and Dr Ruby Farr of the Institute for Connected Communities, draw on one of the most comprehensive European studies of youth cybercrime to date. Researchers interviewed convicted cybercriminals in the UK and Switzerland and found a wide range of offence types, from hacking and digital fraud to sexual offences carried out online.
Nearly half of those interviewed (47%) said they had engaged in illegal online behaviour from an early age. Many described a gradual progression, with early experimentation slowly escalating into more serious crimes including identity theft, financial fraud and revenge pornography. Crucially, many said they hadn’t fully understood at the time that they were crossing a legal line.
One participant described how it started at school: “When I was 14, I got suspended from school for hacking the school network. I used to get in to mark my homework as done, and I would vary the grades realistically too, so it didn’t look suspicious. I got away with it for ages until I told a mate and he ratted me out. But I started seeing tech as a useful problem solver.”
What began as a clever workaround became the foundation for a criminal mindset. For others, the consequences only became clear years down the line: “Don’t tarnish your reputation – it will never disappear. I really didn’t get the implications when I was younger. Now my Criminal Records Bureau check looks horrendous. I can never have a mortgage now.”
The research found that online risk-taking is widespread among young people in general, with behaviours like digital piracy, accessing harmful content or spending time in dangerous online spaces all acting as potential stepping stones to more serious offending. While males were more likely overall to engage in cybercrime and high-risk online behaviour (73.6% compared to 64.6% of females), female involvement was higher than many might expect. Women were slightly more likely than men to report tracking someone online, and the study found that sexual and financial crimes frequently overlapped in patterns of repeat offending.
For the researchers, the most important takeaway is that intervention needs to happen long before a young person ends up in front of a judge. “Our research shows clear pathways shaped by risk, opportunity and a lack of understanding about where the legal line sits online. Prevention must start early and involve families, educators, industry and policymakers working together,” said Professor Julia Davidson OBE.
Dr Ruby Farr stressed the importance of listening to those who have already gone down this path: “Listening to the lived experiences of convicted cybercriminals, who have perpetrated a range of crimes, is essential if we are serious about prevention, intervention, and rehabilitation.”
The research has been shared with the National Crime Agency, whose National Cyber Crime Unit deputy director Paul Foster welcomed the findings. “This research is another important reminder of how vital it is to engage with young people at an early age, to help divert them from a cyber crime pathway,” he said. “It also shows them that online offending isn’t victimless and can have serious real-world consequences, as seen with the ransomware attacks affecting British retailers and other sectors in the past few months.”
“A whole of society approach is needed here, with everyone playing their part, as law enforcement cannot tackle this issue alone,” added Foster.
The book, Pathways into and out of Youth Cybercrime, is published by Routledge and comes with a suite of free resources for young people, parents and educators. Its message is timely: in a world where children grow up online, understanding where curiosity ends and criminality begins has never been more important.