Parents urged to act amid ‘shocking’ rise in Australian teens being radicalised online
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Some young Australians have advocated for race wars and planned school shootings after being radicalised online, and an international intelligence alliance warns teenagers across the world are being pushed towards violence.A 16-year-old investigated by Australia’s Joint Counter-Terrorism Team had urged members of their extremist online community to prepare for a war to “defend the white race” and used their forum to discuss carrying out a mass killing offshore, live-streaming a shooting on Facebook and request bomb-making help.The team also helped arrest a 14-year-old who adhered to nationalist and racist violent extremist ideology, expressing strong admiration for terrorists and posting related content on Snapchat before planning a school shooting.The two case studies were included in a report from Five Eyes countries — which includes Australia, the UK, the US, Canada and New Zealand — as their concerns over online youth radicalisation grow.
Extremists are using seemingly innocuous online spaces including gaming platforms like Roblox and Discord, or social media sites to approach young people before pushing them down a pipeline of violence.Teenagers are particularly vulnerable to online radicalisation, especially those who are socially isolated as the online world can be their key source of community, the report found.
Content retrieved from: https://www.sbs.com.au/news/article/shocking-rise-in-australian-teens-being-radicalised-online/h5onlx29w.
