Young people are reportedly in a crisis. Never before has the future seemed so ultimately bleak for the youngest generation. Young people will have less opportunities economically than their parents, likely face worsening climate disasters, and the fallout of several decades of capitalist growth cumulating into ecological collapse. And that’s just the existential crisis. 

Young people are facing a new addiction – not drugs, alcohol, or gambling, but an addiction to screens, which wrecks their attention spans, demoralises their self worth, and radicalises them either for or against their best interests. 

In a nation where some young social media influencers can rake in millions of pounds for touting tanned skin on lush beaches, why would say, a 19 year old elect to work the same minimum wage job as a 25 year old with less pay per hour, elect to go to university to potentially amass student loans, or work as an apprentice in a trade for £7.55 per hour in their first year in an industry that may, as many are promising, be taken over by robots or AI in just a number of years? 

Oh, but what if these youths are good at coding? Well, they may enjoy a year or two in a high-paying tech job after three or four years of university and a graduate scheme, before being laid off in favour of AI. 

Why would a promising young adult, disaffected by society’s rankings of popularity and success, choose to work within a system that is seemingly working against them at all angles? Especially when lucrative, stimulating, and even ‘cool’ alternatives exist? 

Perhaps this is just some of the logic under-riding the continuous trend of young people entering the exciting, dark, anonymous underbelly of cyber-criminality. 

The NCA arrested four young adults, all under the age of 21 and therefore could be paid less than the measly £12.21 an hour on the national minimum wage, for allegedly breaking the computer misuse act and working with organised crime, in connection to the disastrous data breaches of M&S, Co-op, and Harrods. 

Scattered Spider, the infamous ransomware group thought to be behind the attacks, is notable for many reasons – it is not aligned with a political national interest, its members are often native-English speakers from the UK and US, and are often young. 

The trend is not attached to one cyber gang, however, with Lapsus$ having several young and even underage members, notably a British teenager who managed to hack Rockstar Games while under arrest with just an Amazon firestick, a hotel television, and a mobile phone. 

So, while the motivation and skills are often apparent, how are children, teens, and young people getting into the world of cyber-crime? 

All the World’s A Game 

Say what you want about cyber-criminal organisations – they know how to recruit. In a nation that is struggling with a cybersecurity skills gap, cyber-crime organisations are going straight to the route, targeting young people who show an aptitude at video games and an interest in hacking. 

Video games often have a seemingly harmless level of hacking involved in them – players often share cheat codes and jail breaks to score more points or advance beyond difficult levels. Young digital natives often take this a step further, building their hacking skills. 

Cyber-criminals notice this, often using data from Discord servers where players share their cheat codes or gaming prowess as a recruitment tool. 

With the average age of a cyber-criminal in the UK being just 17, this trend appears to be working. 

About three in five (61%) of hackers in the UK said that they started off their hacking journeys by simply exploring coding and online games, the National Crime Agency found. 

Instead of having to apply for apprenticeships, study for uni, or leave their bedrooms, youths are offered easy ways to make money using skills they already have. 

Discord is reportedly a hunting ground for cyber gangs to recruit tech savvy young people into their organisations with the promise of easy money and a stimulating job. 

Research from Intel471 discovered a large number of online communities on Discord that were made up of young users engaged in illegal activity, from hacking to SIM swapping to stealing crypto. 

While the realm offered tech savvy youths a way to achieve notoriety and even anonymous, online fame, the communities noted by Intel471 also had darker tones, rife with offensive language, threats, sextortion, and doxxing.

Intel471 found that some of these Discord forums lured in users with tutorials on hacking, while others offered a platform for users to discuss their illegal activity. 

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Many cyber-criminals that get their start on Discord begin engaging in illegal activity to win advances in games, employing information stealers to attain digital assets that can be used in games – a gateway to more damaging and illicit crimes.  

In a world where young people are more pressured and interested in reaching online fame than ever before, the anonymous nature of Discord can offer this promise of renown to those disaffected by other social media forms. 

Excelling at video games can quickly gain the interest of those working in malicious activities, or those with a talent in computers could enter the sphere of their own interest. Taking part in hacking can advance someone’s online reputation while earning them money, an easy, validating win for teens spending a good chunk of their time online. 

The National Crime Agency found that 40% of young offenders do not view their cyber-crimes as wrong, meaning that they do not understand the real-world consequences of their actions.

Why Play Fair? 

The thing about cybersecurity and hacking is, though, that we do not actually want to fully deter young people from these skills. Rather, young people are not being directed appropriately to use these skills for good.

Little ethical options exist that offer the same type of prestige and money as hacking. A 17-year-old will make more money and gain more notoriety and validation from hacking online than working an apprenticeship, and can often do these on their own terms. Cyber-crime may offer a better route for self-expression, self-management, and independence that young people crave. 

“When we fail to create visible, ethical pathways for curious young people with cybersecurity talent, some will take the wrong route, with life-changing consequences,” Kara Sprague, CEO of HackerOne, said. 

“Around the world, outdated laws and a lack of awareness leave too many aspiring hackers without a clear pathway to an ethical outlet for their talent. This gap harms individuals and deprives us of the talent we need in today’s threat landscape.

“AI is raising the stakes. It’s lowering the barrier to entry for attackers while increasing complexity for defenders. Now more than ever, we need to meet the next generation of hackers where they are with programs, policies, and incentives that channel curiosity into contribution rather than criminal behaviour.

“Countries like Belgium and Australia are making progress. But in places like the UK, modernising legislation and expanding Safe Harbour protections are long overdue. If we want to grow a pipeline of ‘hackers for good,’ we must make that path visible and safe.”

Sprague points out several concerns and failures in the modern system that makes this issue more confounding and difficult to quell. 

AI is lowering the entry barrier for young people to create more sophisticated and effective attacks. 

Seeing promising young individuals use their skills and prowess to pull off impressive, and devastating, targeted cyber-attacks is terrifying, but punishment may not serve the UK industry best. 

Creating a more visible path for those interested in hacking, in cyber-attacks, in computing, is necessary to attract young people away from crime and into long-term, stable career paths. 

However, this would require quite a few overhauls to how the UK values young people. 

Those under the age of 21 are legally allowed to be paid less than their older counterparts, even for the same work. This is a government-mandated system that devalues the work of younger people. 

To be just as effective as cyber-criminal organisations in reaching young talent, apprenticeships need to be recruiting burgeoning video game stars on Discord, offering better pay, and equal social capital as the world of cyber-crime. 

Will this be enough to reach out to disaffected youth in the UK?