Teen hackers tell BBC how police are helping them use their skills for good
A teenage hacker in Cumbria was referred to the police's Cyber Choices programme after hacking his school computers. The programme provides one‑to‑one guidance, legal education and pathways into cybersecurity training. Authorities note a rise in youth‑led hacking and many participants are neurodiverse.
- ▪Lucas, 16, hacked his school computers and was close to expulsion before his mother contacted the police.
- ▪PC Sam Cooper from the Cyber Choices scheme has been meeting Lucas at home to explain legal boundaries and steer him toward professional training.
- ▪The Cyber Choices programme has handled over 1,150 cases in eight years, with nearly 600 in the last three years.
- ▪Officials say teenage hacking groups are increasingly involved in major cyber‑attacks and many participants are neurodiverse, including autism.
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| Publication time | Fri, 31 Jul 2026 00:42:48 GMT |
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Teen hackers tell BBC how police are helping them use their skills for goodImage caption, Lucas said he felt a "sense of achievement" from hackingByJoe TidyWorld Service cyber correspondentPublished19 minutes agoLucas was 16 when he got into trouble for hacking his school computers. Twice."It was like a challenge to see if I could," he told the BBC.He wanted access to play games and visit blocked websites so he started tinkering with programming.At one point he even unscrewed the computer tower to take some internal components home for tests."It's quite a sense of achievement when you've succeeded in doing something that two or three trained professionals have spent a lot of time trying to stop you doing," he said.
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