New research reveals over half of teenagers in London exposed to unqualified investment advice on social media
It's part of a research project that revealed over 700,000 teenagers across the UK have invested money into trying to copy them themselves
New research reveals over half of teenagers across the capital have been exposed to "get rich quick" videos on social media
As well as this nearly three quarters of a million teenagers across the UK say they have invested their own money trying to copy these videos
Local investment expert Duncan Ferris explains how these videos can be so effective
"There's often a promise of making money in a quick and an easy way of guaranteed returns. There's normally sort of no risk involved maybe or something like that.
There's often a line as well about this worked for me and I'm selling my secret and that's a bit of a red flag, I think.
That kind of thing can be very eye-catching, can be very alluring. There's also very, very clever ways in which videos are edited, thumbnails are edited."
London teenagers at particular risk
In London, it's a particularly prevalent problem with 6 out of 10 teenagers in the capital who see this type of content, have tried to copy it
As well as this over 42% have seen some kind of crypto currency content pushed to them on social media
Duncan says although it's a noticeable increase when looking at the capital compared to elsewhere, it's hard to tell why that is the case
" I couldn't necessarily comment as to why that is, but that's a very interesting regional difference.
There could be many causes to that, but I guess it makes it more important for parents in London to think about how to have these conversations and to think about what your children might be seeing online and what they might be thinking of doing with their savings if they have them."
What parents can do
The research also highlighted a lack of confidence in parents as to knowing what to say to their children about content they see online
The research states 31% of parents are not confident they could tell whether the financial content their child sees online is trustworthy.
Duncan says conversations about the topic between parents and children are essential
"Talk about this with your children. Because if you don't talk about it with them, you're not going to know what they're interested in.
These conversations might be hard. They might not be ones that you're particularly comfortable having.
But if you don't have them, there's a risk that your children are receiving damaging information, they may be receiving information that you would run a mile from if you heard it yourself."
Duncan says he has sympathy for parents as these conversations can often be tough to have
"How you approach this as a parent is a difficult question.
How does a dry lecture about sort of sound personal finance stack up against flashy social media videos with sort of very sharp editing that are really designed to catch the eye and hold people's attention and deliver some kind of instant quick fix and instant result?"
The positive news
Although the main headline can be interoperated to be all bad news, Duncan adds there are positives to be taken away
"There is positive news about how engaged and how keen to learn teenagers are. And the fact that we've seen sort of a third of teenagers made money by selling clothes online, 18% think they have an exciting business idea that might make them money in the future.
There's a generation who are interested in ideas and making money and how to sort of conduct their personal finances. And for parents and for the rest of us, maybe it's a matter of giving them the responsible helping hand that they need."