L&T Blog W5: Are the risks higher for disadvantaged students with scam emails?

Dear WA,

I hope everyone is well! With Curriculum Drop Down Day coming up, and with our ongoing work on the Personal Development curriculum, this week for Bitesize Research, I was interested to see a recent reported study done by the UCL Institute of Education student responses to scam emails, and in particular, disadvantaged students. 

Objectives: To understand the level of risk for opening scam emails, particularly for disadvantaged students

Summary: 

• The study looked at 150,000 teenagers aged 15

• It reports that one in five deprived teens could fall victim to opening scam emails or phishing. This makes them much more likely to do this than their more advantaged peers. These students are also more likely to have poorer learning skills.

• The study also found that currently, students who are educated about the dangers of online fraud, are just as likely to fall victim to this as those who are not.

• As such, the author of the study is urging schools, particularly those serving more deprived communities, to ensure they have the highest quality of education on this topic. 

How does this impact me and my practice?: Some reflections arising from this that might be helpful to consider are: 

• How have I already worked with students on this topic? How effective was my teaching and learning practice on this?

• What might help me to improve my practice in teaching this area?

Please do get in touch if you would like to talk further about this - I’d love to hear from you!

Thanks, Jaya