The internet has made financial participation easier. It has also created new ways for young people to lose money.

Online sports betting, cryptocurrency, speculative investing, financial influencers, impersonation scams, and increasingly sophisticated fraud now reach young people through many of the same platforms they use for entertainment and communication. The boundary between financial education, advertising, speculation, and exploitation can be difficult to see.

Our research asks how young people make financial decisions in this environment. Where do they learn what they know about money? Which sources do they trust? How well do they recognize risk? And what happens when financial products are designed to feel more like games, communities, or social media than traditional financial services?

We are particularly interested in the forms of financial vulnerability that conventional measures of financial literacy may miss.