In February 2024, American teenager Tejasvi Manoj watched as her grandfather was almost scammed out of $2,000 in a cybercrime attempt. Pretending to be a relative, the fraudster had sent an urgent email requesting money to settle a debt. Fortunately, Manoj’s dad alerted her grandfather to the scam before any money was sent. That experience made Manoj realize that elderly citizens are particularly vulnerable to online scams.

So she decided to do something about it. 

Since that day, Manoj has devoted her free time to developing a website called Shield Seniors, a resource that helps people aged 60 and older learn how to spot online scams and analyze suspicious messages. Though she is still building this resource, her work has already been recognized for helping protect an overlooked population that is particularly vulnerable to cybercrimes. In 2025, the project earned Manoj the title of Time magazine’s Kid of the Year.

 Cybercrime is any illegal activity involving computers and the Internet. It can include identity theft and using fraudulent messages (emails, texts, and phone calls) to get people to send money or share bank account details. There are thousands of cybercrime victims each year, many of them senior citizens. In 2023, the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation estimated that scams targeting people over age 60 caused more than $3.4 billion in losses. 

“I found out this was a much bigger problem than I could have anticipated,” said Manoj in an interview with Time. “After seeing these kinds of statistics, I became really concerned for my grandfather and for so many older adults.”