They are the most active online shoppers and one of the groups most likely to acquire pirated goods, especially when the original items carry a high price tag. This reality prompted the Technological Institute of Children and Entertainment Products AIJU, the Portuguese Association for the Promotion of Child Safety, and the European Intellectual Property Office EUIPO to launch a training project in vocational training institutes and centres. The aim is to raise awareness among adolescents aged 12 to 18 about fraud risks.
The workshops formed part of the SafeOrFake initiative, which concentrates on products favored by this age group such as technology, clothing, sports equipment, electric scooters, and cosmetics. It has already produced an innovative free educational tool for teaching primary school children about the importance of intellectual property.
Maria Cruz Arenas, the project lead at AIJU, notes that young consumers are among the most likely to buy fake products, making early education crucial to understanding the risks and problems that counterfeit procurement can create.
Black Friday and Christmas
Black Friday marks the start of the year’s largest shopping period and runs through Christmas, according to the technology institute. For younger shoppers, purchases are predominantly online, a channel that currently sees the highest fraud risk, supported by recent surveys from EUIPO and OECD. In fact, more than half of seizures of pirated products relate to items bought online within the region.
EUIPO data also indicate that at least 50 percent of young consumers find it acceptable to buy fake products if the price of the original is too high.
The SafeOrFake initiative seeks to elevate consumer skills across educational levels from primary to university, enabling informed decisions and reducing the purchase of counterfeit goods. Supporters emphasize that counterfeit activity harms not only businesses but public treasuries, citizens, and the welfare state.
Aiju and Euipo create educational tool to show children the dangers of fake toys
Many counterfeit products carry health hazards and fail to meet safety standards. Counterfeits appear in everyday items beyond luxury goods, including clothing, footwear, batteries, mobile devices, toys, cosmetics, sports gear, medicine, and even car parts.
Project manager at AIJU explains the motivation behind the effort: engaging students as consumers and citizens who rely on products deemed essential for children and adolescents, such as technology, cosmetics, clothing, and toys, to promote sound decisions for national and European progress.
Awareness workshops in educational centers have shown strong results by challenging both students and teachers to rethink purchasing habits, representing a first step toward changing attitudes toward counterfeit products.