The internet can be misused to facilitate the radicalisation of children and young people. This can happen when they are groomed online by perpetrators or, in other cases, self-radicalised from being exposed to extremist content.
Understanding the Different Terms
Radicalisation is the process where a young person becomes familiar with and accepting of extreme views.
Extremism is when a person holds extreme political, ideological, or religious views – they are extreme because they exist outside of mainstream thought.
Violent extremism refers to when violence is used to further these views.
Since 2010, The Home Office say that more than 310,000 pieces of illegal extremist content have been removed from the internet.
The internet itself is not responsible for the radicalisation of children and young people, but it creates a fertile environment where behaviours can accelerate the process of radicalisation in ways never seen before.
Young people may be more vulnerable to the impact of harmful extremist content without the right critical thinking and media literacy skills.
Violent content can be used in the radicalisation process, where it depicts an act of violence on minorities by armed forces or other extremist groups. This content can be designed to show injustice which incites anger as part of the radicalisation process.
What does extremist content look like?
Extremist content can have obvious or implied meanings. Examples can include:
- Videos, images, or music that glorifies, endorses, or trivialises hatred, exclusion, violence, or discrimination.
- Videos and images that shock and draw sympathy from the viewer for an extremist ideology – e.g., innocent children killed by a drone bombing raid or a white person being attacked by ethnic minorities to show the minority in a poor light.
- Leaflets, flyers, or booklets which put forth convincing stories to engage the reader to support the aims of an extremist ideology.
- The use of extremist symbols which might infer support for violent Islamic groups, neo-Nazi, or far-right ideologies.
Identifying Hidden Risks
There is much publicity and focus placed on fundamentalist extremism related to Islamic groups. However, there is also a significant risk to children from other forms of extremism associated with the far-right nationalist movements in the UK and abroad.
Key Issues of Online Radicalisation
- The internet can act as an echo chamber, where algorithms learn to feed a user with consistent and similar extremist content.
- Young people may be exposed to extremist content when it is not obvious to them that the intent is to radicalise.
- The internet is a rich source of information, and networking with people who share similar extreme views has never been easier.
- Conspiracy theories can create extreme and distorted views and opinions which can cause harm offline.
What might make a young person vulnerable to extreme content?
It is important to recognise that vulnerable children who feel isolated and excluded can be more vulnerable to online extremism.
- They may be curious and seek to understand alternative viewpoints.
- They may not trust authorities or feel isolated.
- They might seek a sense of connection and shared experience with like-minded people.
- A young person may feel excluded from their peer groups and seek acceptance and the gift of belonging in online spaces.
Practical Tips
- Talk about media literacy and how the children in your care can question what they read, hear, or see online – it’s important that they can distinguish between fake news and real news.
- Encourage an open and honest discussion about controversial ideas. Rather than silencing these views, you can use the opportunity to reframe them.
- Make sure young people understand there can be legal implications for sharing or downloading content that encourages or glorifies any act of violence.
- Use our online reporting page to learn how to report extremist content to the police.