D6.5 Key conclusions/risk factors on the main human factors for cybercrime in children and young adults

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The fourth task of Work Package (WP) 6 in the RAYUELA project aims to clarify and refine the results obtained for both victims and offenders of the cybercrimes under consideration. Since the project deals with such a sensitive topic as minors and cybercrime, the data-driven results and conclusions coming from task 6.2 and 6.3 needs to be reviewed and interpreted from a multidisciplinary perspective by experts in order to clarify and refine the acquired knowledge. 

As already mentioned, the input information is obtained from the the data collected during the RAYUELA pilots in schools and the statistical analysis carried out in tasks 6.1 and 6.2. In this task, we combine the conclusions from two methodological approaches (described in D6.2 and D6.3): a Machine Learning approach and an approach based on causality and Bayesian statistics. The final discussion on the obtained results was finally conducted during a workshop held in Valencia on the 2nd of March 2023 involving experts in the consortium (e.g., LEAs, social scientists, educators, …). For this purpose, two questionnaires were filled in by the participants, one before and one after showing the results of the statistical analyses. 

The analyses focused solely on cyberbullying, for which a validated psychological questionnaire answered by the minors is available, making it the gathered data which is closest to a “ground truth”. The methodologies and conclusions drawn from these analyses of cyberbullying will be helpful for the subsequent investigation of the other cybercrimes considered in RAYUELA. 

Given the available data and the technical limitations of the different approaches, the results seem to indicate that the serious game RAYUELA is a practical measure to identify minors who have been victims or perpetrators of cyberbullying in the past. At the moment, demographic, psychological and sociological data do not seem to have significant relevance in the analysis. However, we believe these results should be taken cautiously until more evidence is available and further analysis is conducted. 

From a methodological viewpoint, we expect that increasing the sample size and refining models will allow us to clarify the current conclusions. As we continue to explore this critical issue, we hope that the insights gained through this analysis will be valuable in advancing our understanding of young cybercriminality as well as to develop public policy to protect minor’s online and improve their online experience.