RCMP asks for help handling troubling number of kids radicalizing online
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When RCMP Supt. Jean-Guy Isaya first started as a police officer 20 years ago, school outreach involved drug safety programs.
Now the Mountie says there’s a growing need to talk to kids about violent extremism.
“We believe that young people and minors pose the same threat as adults,” said Isaya, who works in the RCMP’s national security team.
“This trend is certainly continuing and it doesn’t seem to want to disappear.”
It’s why the RCMP and the Canadian Security Intelligence Service, along with other Five Eyes intelligence and law enforcement agencies, put out a report earlier this month warning about the rising prominence of young people who are attracted to violent ideologies.
The Five Eyes alliance, which includes Canada, Australia, New Zealand, the United Kingdom and the United States, warns that minors are particularly vulnerable to online radicalization. Extremist recruiters can turn innocuous social media and gaming platforms like Discord, Instagram, Roblox and TikTok into breeding grounds of hate.
Content retrieved from: https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/youth-radicalization-terrorism-1.7407417.
