Every April during Financial Literacy Month we celebrate National Teach Children to Save Day. It’s a time to help young people understand the value of money. But in today’s world, that also means teaching them how to protect it.
As a payments professional and a parent of a 7-year-old, I know that teaching kids to save is about much more than piggy banks and dollar bills. It’s about preparing them for a digital world where money moves fast, and where fraudsters move even faster.
Digital Dollars, Real Risks
Children today are growing up surrounded by digital money: online games, digital wallets, and payment apps. While these innovations make transactions simple and fun, they also create opportunities for scammers and cybercriminals to take advantage of young curious minds.
Recent studies confirm that this threat is very real.
· The Family Online Safety Institute (FOSI) 2025 Survey found that only about half of parents use parental controls on tablets, and just 35% on gaming consoles, even though nearly 9 in 10 children say they feel comfortable telling their parents when something online makes them feel unsafe.
· The Javelin Strategy & Research 2024 Child & Family Cybersecurity Study revealed that most child identity theft victims were active social media users, and over half came from higher-income households — showing that online fraud risks cut across demographics.
These insights show that it’s not just adults who are at risk of fraud. Children and teens are increasingly vulnerable, especially in digital environments.
That’s why “saving” today doesn’t just mean putting money aside; it also means saving yourself from fraud.
Building Digital Awareness Early
The good news? Children are naturally curious — and that curiosity can be a powerful teaching tool. Here are a few ways parents and educators can build financial safety lessons into everyday conversations:
- Talk about money openly. Let kids ask questions about how payments work, from swiping a debit card to buying something online. Transparency builds trust and understanding.
- Explain what’s private. Teach them to guard personal information just like they’d protect their favorite toy. Their full name, address, passwords, and account numbers are never for sharing.
- Practice before they go online. Use pretend scenarios (“What if someone asked for your login?”) to teach critical thinking.
- Show how scams work. Watch kid-friendly cybersecurity videos or look at examples of fake messages together. Learning to spot red flags early builds lifelong fraud awareness.
Connecting Saving and Safety
Just as we encourage children to set aside money for future goals, we can also help them save their digital integrity. When kids understand that every online decision has a value, whether it’s spending coins in a game or clicking a link, they begin to see saving as part of being smart with money overall.
You might even create a family digital allowance:
- Earn points for safe online behavior
- Save those points toward a fun reward
- Reinforce that security is a form of saving
When they see how skipping a risky click or protecting their login is as important as putting coins in a jar, they’ll internalize both money-sense and fraud-sense.
How Financial Institutions and Payments Professionals Can Help
As payments professionals, we have a responsibility to help families understand the connection between financial literacy and fraud prevention.
In ePayResources’ Fraud Reduction Meetings, I regularly hear from members about individuals who are tricked into becoming victims or unknowingly helping criminals move stolen funds. It’s heartbreaking, and it reinforces why early education is so important. By teaching children to recognize warning signs and protect their information, we can help stop these crimes before they start:
· Share educational tools that promote safe digital habits for kids (not just how to save, but how to protect what they save).
- Encourage youth savings programs that include cybersecurity education.
- Partner with schools or community groups during Financial Literacy Month to spread awareness of how digital payments, account security, and identity protection all tie together.
- Use insights like those from the Javelin and FOSI studies to tailor messages, e.g., highlighting that children with social media access and payment-linked apps are at heightened risk of fraud.
Bottom line, protecting our children’s money starts with protecting their knowledge and their identity.
Resources for Parents and Educators
If you’re ready to teach kids about saving and staying safe, these trusted organizations offer excellent free tools:
Empowering the Next Generation
Teaching kids to save is teaching them to value what they have, but teaching them to protect what they have is just as important.
As studies have shown, children are very much in the sights of fraudsters, and that parental tools and awareness are still catching up. As parents and professionals, we can empower the next generation not only to save smart but to stay safe — online, offline, and everywhere in between.