CYBERCRIME

Cybercrime has emerged as one of the most significant challenges facing Nigeria in the digital age, with its effects being particularly evident among youths. This study examines the impacts of cybercrime in Nigeria, using youths in Benin City as a case study. The research investigates the social, economic, and psychological consequences of cybercrime on young people, as well as its influence on societal values, employment opportunities, and the reputation of Nigeria both locally and internationally. Data were collected through surveys, interviews, and relevant secondary sources involving youths within Benin City. The findings reveal that while cybercrime provides short-term financial gains for some individuals, it contributes significantly to moral decadence, youth unemployment, loss of trust in online transactions, financial losses to victims, and the stigmatization of Nigerian youths in global digital spaces. The study further identifies factors such as unemployment, poverty, peer influence, and the quest for quick wealth as major drivers of cybercrime among youths. The research concludes that cybercrime poses serious threats to sustainable development and social stability in Nigeria. It recommends increased employment opportunities, digital literacy programs, stricter law enforcement, and youth empowerment initiatives as effective measures to curb cybercrime and promote responsible use of information and communication technologies among young people in Benin City and Nigeria at large.

This study was carried out to investigate cybercrime and the misuseofmodern technologies by youths in the University of Benin. Cybercrimeisvastly growing in the world of technology today. Cybercriminals exploitinternet users’ personal information for their own gain. They dive deepintothe dark web to buy and sell illegal products and services and evengainaccess to classified government information. Many nations of the worldhaveblacklisted Nigerian youths in connection with fraudulent and illegal internetactivities and as such would not want to do any formof legitimate businesstransaction(s) with them especially on the internet with the fear of beingscammed or duped. Cybercrime in Nigeria seems to be perpetuatedbyyouths especially those in Universities and to a very large extent cybercrimeseems to affect their educational pursuit and academic performance. Theyouths are of a great concern and importance to every society, so, whateverit takes, their development should be looked into so as to promote thegoalsof education. Nine research questions were raised and six hypotheseswereformulated to guide the study. The descriptive survey research design was adopted for the study. Thepopulation of the study comprised 43,772 students made up of 39,243undergraduates and 4,529 postgraduates. The data was collectedusingsimple random sampling technique and a sample size of 408 studentswasselected from the University of Benin. The research instrument usedfor the xiv study was a self-structured questionnaire. The instrument was subjectedtoscrutiny and test-retest reliability of 0.96 was derived, indicatingthat theinstrument was reliable. The data were analyzed using frequency, percentage, mean, standard deviation, chi-square and t-test of independent samplesstatistics. The results revealed that unemployment, greed for money, povertyand parental conflict are among the leading causes of misuse of moderntechnology for cybercrime. Cybercrime activities can impact negativelyonyouths in the areas of academics, interpersonal relationships, socialbehaviour, and so on. Non-prosecution of cybercriminals by government andlaw enforcement agents encourages youths’ participation in cybercrimeactivities. Peer influence encourage youths’ involvement in cybercrimeactivities. There is a direct link between knowledge of internet andcybercrime activities. There exists a relationship between socio-economicstatus of youths and their involvement in cybercrime. Males aremoreinclined to cybercrime and deviant behaviours than their female counterparts. family and parents’ socio-economic background is linked toyouthinvolvement in cybercrimes and there is a relationship betweeneducationand cybercrime activities among youths. It was concluded that the causative factors of youths’ involvement incybercrime can be curbed or reduced to its barest minimumand youthscanbe encouraged to uphold societal values and shun criminal tendencies. It was xv recommended that the government should formulate workable policiesagainst cybercrimes.

Cyber crime has grown to be one of the biggest problems facing law enforcement agencies as a result of the development of computer and the information technologies.¹ some of the few numbers of attacks carried out by cyber criminals in 2006 was about 3.24millions, in 2019 cybercrime was estimated to cost the global economy $2trillion, also the global average cost of a data breach was $3.86 in 2020.² Some crimes committed online even outnumbered the ones committed offline. However, researchers predict that around 90% of cyber crime get unreported.³ Criminal act is a dynamic phenomenon. Criminal have used a
variety of mediums over time to further there illegal goals. The development of computer technology opened up numerous option for commerce and communication, as well as numerous chances for traditional crime to be committed
daily.⁴ Government, industry and the general public all used the umbrella word “cyber crime" to describe a wide range of illegal activities and bad behavior involving the use of computers, the internet and the ICTs.⁵