THE Royal Bank of Scotland is to create a new documentary series featuring young entrepreneurs to promote online safety.
Microchats follows rising young business people, which includes a range of self-starts from an internet florist to an author, for 24 hours, looking at how they each use social media to build their brands and what tactics they use to stay safe while online.
The seven guests include Chris McQueer, author of short story collection, Hings; Hayley Scanlan, founder of her own fashion label and twice crowned Scottish Young Fashion Designer of the Year; Tom Ketley, owner and director of FLY events; Naziyah Mahmood, a qualified astrophysicist and one of Scotland’s 30 Most Inspirational Women under 30 as named by the YWCA; Chloe Milligan, founder of Mud Urban Flowers; Collette Norval of Social Stuff, creators of Squad Scarves and Josh Carson, director at GearedApp, a software development company in Edinburgh.
The series travels to cities across Scotland, covering Edinburgh, Glasgow, Dundee and Aberdeen, and is hosted by Capital FM’s breakfast host, Amy Irons. The short clips follow the release of the first RBS Mobile Microleisure Report in March of this year.
The report found despite young Scots aged 18 to 24 spending an average of up to 46 days a year using mobile apps, they remain the most complacent when it comes to online security.
The Microchats guests echoed the findings uncovered in the Mobile Microleisure Report which revealed that while many young people believe they’re savvy online, they are unclear on how to equip themselves with the knowledge of how to stay safe and secure.
The research revealed of Scots who use mobile apps, an average of 98 per cent use them at least once a day, with one in four (26%) using them at least 20 times a day. More than one in four Scots (27%) who have a smartphone don’t have it protected with a passcode.
Three in 10 (29%) of Scots who have shared online account details have shared personal banking details.
Young Scots aged 18 to 24 who use mobile apps spend an average of 46 days a year using them.
One third (32%) of Scots use their smartphone as the number one device for internet browsing.
The report found that out of all Scots who use apps, it is the youngest Scots who are the most prolific app users, with 18 to 24-year-olds spending an average of 46 full days each year using them.
Josh Carson, founder of GearedApp, said: “Whilst I’m generally savvy, I’m lazy when it comes to online security and I could definitely do to tighten up a few things.
“People get comfortable, if you’ve not been a victim of a scam then you think it will never happen to you but it could happen to anybody, I’ve seen it happen to friends.
“Everything is on my mobile phone these days and if I lost it and someone accessed it, they could take over my life.
“We’re trying to get better at GearedApp so have introduced password managers and everyone is encouraged to generate unique passwords every time we sign up for a new service. “
Julie McArdle of RBS said: “Our new Microchats series has been commissioned to raise awareness of mobile security issues faced by all age groups, including younger audiences who tend to feel the most comfortable and spend the most time using online apps.”
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