The pandemic has caused children and young people to spend an increasing amount of time on the internet, leading to a rise in online radicalization, warns a senior counter-terrorism officer. Unsuspecting youngsters are being exposed to extreme material online, with growing numbers falling into the grips of terrorist groups after spending hours on the internet unsupervised. Counter-terrorism police are focusing more and more on the issue as a result of the concerning rise of online radicalization.
Det Supt Andy Meeks, head of investigations for the North West’s Counter Terrorism Policing, believes, “We have seen a significant increase in online investigations, or investigations of individuals who’ve been committing acts of terrorism online. A lot, I think, coincided with the pandemic, when we saw a lot of people who spend extended periods online in isolation, and I think that has definitely led to an increase in this type of activity. It’s certainly an increased focus of our work in counter-terrorism policing.” A similar sentiment was echoed by Jonathan Hall KC, an independent reviewer of terrorism legislation, who recently warned of the rising trend of isolated teenagers being radicalized in malignant online spaces.
The warning comes after a 20-year-old student, Jacob Graham, was sentenced to 13 years in prison after pleading guilty to preparing acts of terrorism by compiling and sharing a bomb-making manual. He had told his trial that he wanted to kill at least 50 politicians and had buried bomb-making chemicals in a woodland near his home. Despite this, he insisted that his motivation was “more like an anarchist” than terrorist and denied any connections to any terrorist group or political ideologies.
Meek said the student had spent several months planning his terror acts from his bedroom at the home he shared with his mother in Liverpool. Graham was fairly socially isolated and did not appear to have any wider interests. Meek added that teen radicalization is becoming alarming, since online terrorist groomers are exploiting the amount of time children spend online unsupervised by their families, schools, social workers, or mental health services.
According to Home Office figures released last week, the number of children arrested on suspicion of terror offenses has reached a record high. Forty-two cases for children aged 17 and under were detained under the Terrorism Act in the year to December 2023, almost a fifth of the total number of terror suspects. This is six times the number ten years ago. Although the majority of arrests have been of young people accessing material from the extreme right, the government warns that no group is invulnerable to exploitation
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