Who Is Tejasvi Manoj? Meet Indian-Origin TIME's 2025 Kid Who Made 'Shield Seniors' To Guard Elderly From Online Scams

(MENAFN- Live Mint) Today, TIME and TIME for Kids reveal the 2025 Kid of the Year, recognizing one exceptional young person making the world a brighter place. The Indian-origin teenager received recognition for her efforts to teach digital literacy to protect seniors from cybercrime/

Tejasvi Manoj is making headlines after she appeared on TIME magazine's cover page as "2025 Kid of the Year." The 17-year-old digital defender concerned by online scams targeting the elderly, decided to launch a website named Shield Seniors to help seniors identify, report, and protect themselves. This idea struck her when she her grandfather almost fell victim to the online scam.

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Narrating the incident from last year, she said that she was driving home from Scouting America camp with her father when they noticed four to five missed calls from his 85-year-old grandfather. It prompted her to address the cyber fraud issue and spread awareness about cybersecurity.

The daughter-father duo got to know that someone claiming to be family member in desperate need of money demanded $2,000 from Tejasvi's grandfather. Tejasvi's grandfather, who was prepared to transfer the funds, first sought his son's approval which saved him from the scam.

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It was almost a near miss for the unsuspecting senior. This inspired Tejasvi to look into the issue and solve this problem to which elderly lost $100,000 or more, totalling to $445 million in 2024, as per Federal Trade Commission's reported figures.

Hence, she built a website to educate the 60-plus demographic so that they could analyse suspicious emails and messages users upload. In case the communications prove fraudulent, the website, which is currently available in a private preview mode, provides links to report them.

She also presented the project at 2025 TEDx Talk in Plano, Texas, about the need to build“digital bridges” to all demographics.

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