The "European Youth Survey CC-DRIVER 2021" includes the answers of almost eight thousand young people, between 16 and 19 years old, from the United Kingdom, France, Spain, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Romania, Sweden and Norway.

This is the first major research that looks at young people not as victims of the digital world, but as potential aggressors, highlighted Tito de Morais, founder of the project MiúdosSegurosNa.Net, who invited the researchers responsible for the study to participate in an international conference in Porto.

The survey, carried out in the summer of 2021, shows the high prevalence of cybercrime and cyberdeviance among young people.

The research mapped both situations related to crime, such as piracy or harassment, as well as other attitudes that can put teenagers at risk, such as the dissemination of pornographic material.

20 key behaviours were selected, of which 13 are cybercriminals and the remaining seven are deviant attitudes or dangerous acts, such as 'sexting' or sharing violent images.

Almost half of the respondents (47.76%) admitted to having committed some form of cybercrime between the summer of 2020 and the summer of 2021.

The most recurrent crime was digital piracy, with one in three young people admitting to doing so.

But there are also many who frequent illegal gambling markets (one fifth) or who agree to launder money or transport money from one place to another.

"One in eight young people acted as a financial mule", stressed Tito de Morais. This is followed by hate speech, 'cyberbullying' or 'hacking', which are practiced by about 10% of young people.

One in eleven young people admitted to having been involved in 'phishing' actions to obtain personal data from third parties, having shared intimate content without authorization, having carried out 'online' fraud, participated in identity theft or in racist or xenophobic speeches.

The study also reveals that one in 13 young people have been involved in situations of online sexual extortion.

But not all dangerous behaviours are classified as crimes, also because the majority were involved in actions considered deviant or risky (69.1%).

One in five admitted to having exchanged erotic messages ('sexting') or having shared violent materials, but even more followed someone on the internet without the person knowing ('tracking') or who chatted with someone online intentionally ('trolling').

Other more common behaviours were sending 'spam' messages or messages of a sexual nature (one in seven).

Young Portuguese people were not surveyed, but Tito de Morais believes that the national reality should not be very different, also because the study showed "there are no major variations between young people in the nine countries".

"The internet is a leveller. What happens in other countries also happens here, but it was important to have a national study on this matter", defended Tito de Morais in an interview with Lusa.

As in the 'offline' world, boys are more likely (74%) to engage in cybercrime or put themselves in dangerous situations than girls (65%) and there are more cases among young people who already have a history of " 'offline' delinquency".

The researchers point out that adolescence is, by definition, a time of life when people feel more attracted to danger and the study shows that most participants were in dangerous 'online' spaces.

The study also warns of the high percentage of young people (37.8%) who spend the equivalent of a working day, that is, at least eight hours a day, in front of a screen.

Only 11.6% are 'online' for less than three hours a day and almost half are between four and seven hours on their digital devices.

Among young people, it is normal to have several accounts on the same platform (about 67%), one more public and open to everyone and others for more restricted groups, which the researchers say point "to disguised uses of social networks".

Almost half of the respondents (46.8%) believe that dangerous 'online' behaviours have increased due to the restrictions and confinement caused by the covid-19 pandemic.

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