{"id":348336,"date":"2026-03-16T01:49:11","date_gmt":"2026-03-16T01:49:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/348336\/"},"modified":"2026-03-16T01:49:11","modified_gmt":"2026-03-16T01:49:11","slug":"alarm-as-gen-z-turns-to-finfluencers-for-money-advice-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/348336\/","title":{"rendered":"Alarm as Gen Z turns to &#8216;finfluencers&#8217; for money advice &#8211; News"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"mb-4 font-serif text-lg sm:text-lg group-[.is-premiumproperty]:font-sans\">Two thirds of young people rely on social media for their financial investment decisions, with one in five turning to artificial intelligence.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 font-serif text-lg sm:text-lg group-[.is-premiumproperty]:font-sans\">A survey of Gen Z (18 to 28-year-olds) respondents by financial regulator ASIC has found 56 per cent somewhat or completely trust financial information on social media.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 font-serif text-lg sm:text-lg group-[.is-premiumproperty]:font-sans\">Nearly two out of three, 63 per cent, said they had logged on to social media platforms to seek financial advice.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 font-serif text-lg sm:text-lg group-[.is-premiumproperty]:font-sans\">In the poll commissioned by YouGov that canvassed 1227 young people, 30 per cent said they watched YouTube videos and 18 per cent relied on artificial intelligence tools to solicit advice about their money.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 font-serif text-lg sm:text-lg group-[.is-premiumproperty]:font-sans\">More than half of those surveyed, 52 per cent, said they trusted \u201cfinfluencers\u201d (financial influencers) and 64 per cent put their faith in AI platforms.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 font-serif text-lg sm:text-lg group-[.is-premiumproperty]:font-sans\">Using social media for financial advice was a risk, ASIC Commissioner Alan Kirkland warned.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 font-serif text-lg sm:text-lg group-[.is-premiumproperty]:font-sans\">\u201cFinancial information on social media and accessed through AI tools can be incomplete, promotional or misleading,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 font-serif text-lg sm:text-lg group-[.is-premiumproperty]:font-sans\">\u201cWhile Gen Z value credibility when seeking financial advice, the information they see most often is shaped by algorithms that are designed to drive clicks and views rather than providing accurate information.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 font-serif text-lg sm:text-lg group-[.is-premiumproperty]:font-sans\">The study found Gen Z had a strong appetite for reputable and trustworthy financial content with 60 per cent reporting they used formal or professional sources,<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 font-serif text-lg sm:text-lg group-[.is-premiumproperty]:font-sans\">But their personal research often led them down a virtual rabbit hole of unreliable accounts designed for engagement rather than accuracy.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 font-serif text-lg sm:text-lg group-[.is-premiumproperty]:font-sans\">Almost one in four Gen Z own cryptocurrency at 23 per cent and of these individuals, 66 per cent take a short-term speculative approach to at least some of their crypto investment.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 font-serif text-lg sm:text-lg group-[.is-premiumproperty]:font-sans\">But nearly a third, 29 per cent, said they trade based on social media and influencer content or recommendations.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 font-serif text-lg sm:text-lg group-[.is-premiumproperty]:font-sans\">The financial watchdog said that strategy set unrealistic expectations about returns, price volatility and the realities of long-term investing.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 font-serif text-lg sm:text-lg group-[.is-premiumproperty]:font-sans\">It reminded those in that cohort wanting to invest wisely to access free, reliable and independent guidance through the Moneysmart website.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 font-serif text-lg sm:text-lg group-[.is-premiumproperty]:font-sans\">-with AAP<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Two thirds of young people rely on social media for their financial investment decisions, with one in five&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":348337,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[72,113,61,60],"class_list":["post-348336","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-economy","tag-business","tag-economy","tag-ie","tag-ireland"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/348336","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=348336"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/348336\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/348337"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=348336"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=348336"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=348336"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}