Financial Education Week starts Monday. Among the objectives: knowing how to protect yourself against financial scams. A necessity for young people, who are very exposed to online solicitations, and whose certain habits can increase the risk of being defrauded.
From Monday March 18, the new financial education week will be held, which takes place every year in the spring. The objective of this new edition is to encourage children and adolescents in particular to take an interest in budgetary and financial issues. Three objectives are on the program: knowing how to manage your money and preventing over-indebtedness; know how to plan and save; know how to protect yourself against financial scams or deceptive business practices.
All 4th grade, SEGPA and 3rd year prep students will be made aware of these questions for two hours by their main teacher who will then give them a quiz. The latter covers the functioning of a budget, a current account, the main means of payment, savings, credit and the prevention of scams.
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An Educfi passport
Participants will then be given an Educfi passport. This system, implemented since 2021, responds to a real concern since 81% of French people consider that financial education is necessary from school.
And in fact, the latest surveys on the financial culture of the French carried out in 2023 by the Banque de France reflect the need for this type of action among the youngest.
- Only 44% of under-35s think it’s not safe to shop online using public Wi-Fi networks.
- 23% of those under 35 share their bank account passwords and identifiers with close friends.
- 25% of those under 35 always or often share information publicly online (social media) about their financial situation.
Three situations that make it easier for scammers to search for personal data of their future victims in order to empty their bank accounts.
Young people very exposed to requests
The figures revealed by the Banque de France surveys also show a very high exposure of young people to solicitations. Thus 30% of 15-17 year olds say they have already received an offer by telephone, internet or a social network to invest money, earn money, lend it, receive it for free or even borrow it.
But this financial education week is also aimed at all audiences with actions carried out throughout France among all audiences. This year’s theme is: Protect your money, secure your future. It will focus on potential risks in the financial field and the importance of protecting your money against scams, fraud, data and identity theft.
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