Many UK agencies involved in fighting terrorism have issued a warning to parents that their children may be unsafe to be impressed online during the summer holidays.
For the first time, Counter Terrorism Policing (CTP), Mi5, and National Crime Agency (NCA) have issued a joint statement for greater vigilance.
It is encouraging parents to discuss online security with their children, as well as with things like placing the control of the parents and the control of the parents on the router.
Groups stated that they are rapidly viewing children “exposure to the most serious harmful online materials”.
Groups stated that children with some of the most extreme materials were being exposed to include “sexual violence (sexual violence; self-loss and suicide contents; animal cruelty; children’s pornographic paintings; and terrorist materials”.
In their statement, groups stated that some children who come to the attention of CTP and NCA are “completely for extreme and pornographic materials”.
Vicky Evans, for Senior National Coordinator of Counter Terrorism Policing, stated that “it can feel like a difficult battle to deal with security in the digital world sometimes”.
“We want parents to strengthen their children to know what to do if they come in unfair materials,” she said.
Alexander Murray of the National Crime Agency said that “there is a rapidly growing threat from grieving and violent online gangs, mainly made up of teenage boys” – something that was identified in its recent threat assessment.
He said that the group is committed to “damage and reduce a series of criminality including crimes related to fraud, cyber, child sexual abuse, violence and extremism/terrorism”.
The prevalence of young criminals has been seen as part of a trend, with Mi5 stated in 2023 that the most arrests have been observed for young people since the records started – 42 out of 219 people investigated people aged 17 or less for terrorism.
In 2024, 39 youths were investigated for crimes related to terrorism.
MI5 Director General, Sir Ken McCallum said that the trend was “deepened” and: “In a few clicks, young people can ask dangerous fundamentalist terrorists to consume online, violent and extremist materials.”
