A number of violent extremist groups, led by minors and young adults, are increasingly targeting kids online – in some cases, with deadly results.
And as federal officials, counterterrorism experts and child advocates sound the alarm, parents need to take action amid the “growing problem,” a scholar at a Catholic university told OSV News.
“There is a naive view of the dangers that are currently online,” said Mary Graw Leary, professor of law at the Columbus School of Law at The Catholic University of America.
Leary, a former federal prosecutor and an expert on technology and victimisation, said that despite ongoing efforts to protect children and youth in the digital space, “we see law enforcement issuing more and more warnings” – especially about 764, a loosely affiliated network of online communities that prey on vulnerable youth.
The group coerces them to produce sexually explicit material, and then blackmailing them to harm themselves as well as others, even beloved family pets.
Deemed a terrorist organisation by Canada, 764 is gaining increased scrutiny by US federal and state authorities. Leary said that while children and vulnerable persons have throughout history been at risk of abuse and exploitation, groups such as 764 show that “the internet provides access to large groups of victims” for predators.
Leary said the internet and such deviant subgroups “provide affinity and normalisation” for the worst of human behavior.
“We’ve got people supporting each other’s perverse, violent proclivities in a way that we didn’t see before,” she said. “These channels are fueling this in a way that didn’t exist.”
