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It says that readily available online tools and tutorials make it easy for youth to begin committing cybercrimes.

And it warns that a sense of pleasure derived from the acts might encourage some perpetrators to escalate their attacks.

A study suggests there are parallels between the ways youngsters turn into hackers and how youths become addicted to drugs and alcohol.

"The hormone dopamine can be released quickly as vulnerable youth achieve frequent and rapid successes online, and if these successes are linked to anti-social acts, such as hacking, they will be reinforced to pursue further ends to obtain their gains," it states.

The study suggests that educational programs developed to tackle substance abuse and smoking could be adapted to help tackle cybercrime.

But there is no reason to claim that hackers are necessarily addicts themselves.

"So, therefore hacking is not recognized clinically as an addiction.

"But our research certainly points to certain compulsive and impulsive aspects of the behaviour and certainly it would warrant further investigation as to whether it was addictive."

The study suggests a large part of the problem is that many youngsters see the internet as a place that is not watched over by guardians.

"There are a lot of people who would also be considered to be quite 'addicted' to technology, but who fight against hacks," said Dr Alice Hutchings from the University of Cambridge.

It says they then encourage each other to carry out more serious acts, helping "normalise" bad behaviour. "These are people who write code and do really fascinating, great work, but are not involved in illegal behaviour.

The report adds that often their goal is not financial gain, but rather to boost their reputation among other hackers in order to compensate for what might be a lack of self-esteem in the rest of their lives.

Just as drug addicts and alcoholics can be helped by getting them to spend time with role models and teaching them to acknowledge how much damage their acts can do to others, so too can hackers be taught to change their ways, the study proposes.

It suggests "at risk" youngsters spend time with rehabilitated cyber-offenders, and that young people be asked to consider the psychological harm online attacks can cause.

The one shortcoming of their work is that they had relied on evidence from other experts rather than young cybercriminals themselves.