'Sadistic' online communities encouraging self-harm and targeting 'young girls', as police identify 21 British victims

The Com network was highlighted as an ‘emerging threat’ by an LBC investigation in September last year as part of our second Online Safety Day.

At the time, the National Crime Agency (NCA) - which investigates organised crime, human and drug trafficking, weapons and cybercrime - said it was second only to small boat crossings in terms of criminal threats, revealing 100 crimes had already been linked to the Com - short for ‘community’.

Following LBC's findings, the Home Office revealed it had commissioned undercover officers to infiltrate the network.

The groups, which have no standout ideology behind them, encourage predominantly teenage boys to inflict harm in the real world, in return for notoriety.

In the past six months, we can now reveal that the NCA and Counter Terrorism Police have had a further 500 referrals about Com activity and have made 14 arrests.

Graeme Biggar, Director General of the NCA, said a dedicated team was set up after LBC’s investigation.

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He said: “The taskforce is really trying to make sure nothing is falling down the crack. 

“We’ve identified 21 victims, mostly young girls, who we hope to have been safeguarded as a result.

“But what’s really uncomfortable is the extent to which the victims, where their online persona matters and online relationships are part of their life; they don’t see what is happening as a crime.

“They see the people abusing them, encouraging them to cut themselves, or commit suicide, as friends. “So even after we’ve intervened, they go back into conversations with them. It’s harrowing.”

The Com has been described to LBC as an ‘ecosystem of sadism, financial exploitation and terror’ which often recruits young boys into groups from social media sites, web forums and gaming platforms.

Once inside, many become desensitised to extreme material which is glorified through images and videos, including of sexual abuse, mass casualty events and gore.

They’re then encouraged to inflict their own harm in the real world and gather content to be shared with other members, with increased notoriety for the most extreme acts.

George Vlasto, head of trust and safety at Resolver - a global company monitoring online harms - told LBC the Com’s “tentacles are now reaching across ever more platforms”.

He said: “We’ve seen members of the Com commit cyber-enabled financial crimes, conduct real world attacks, for example, setting wildfires or trying to attack premises, even people.

“And then there's some egregious harm taking place with mostly young and vulnerable individuals online being cited to commit acts of self-harm, potentially even suicide.

"It's increasing in its geographic reach and I think in the UK specifically, the number of young people that are now becoming aware of or becoming targeted by Com groups has increased quite a lot.

“And while some platforms have taken significant steps forward, particularly in light of the Online Safety Act, there is still more to do.”

Because gaining notoriety is the sole purpose of the harm caused by members of the Com, there is a reluctance from authorities to share too much detail about the exact crimes being committed.

The National Crime Agency also discourages parents from talking explicitly to children about the Com, due to the risk of it piquing interest, but it does encourage open conversations about online activity.

And while the names of Com groups are largely withheld, one of the most notorious which has been widely reported on goes by the name 764.

Last January, 19-year-old Cameron Finnigan from West Sussex was jailed after he was found to be planning a ‘terror week’ as a member of 764.

He was convicted of encouraging suicide, being in possession of a terrorist document, indecent images of children, and of causing criminal damage to a car and a fence.

He’d also told fellow members that he wanted to make a homeless man “submit to their ways” before shooting him.

Elsewhere, George Nicolaou and his wife Areti, from Hertfordshire, previously told LBC they believed someone linked to the Com may have been behind their 15-year-old son’s death in March 2022.

Christopher was found in his bedroom after 50 days of torment and challenges set by an anonymous online predator.

“We found him with an earpiece in his ear and the phone on the floor,” his dad said.

“We picked up his phone and at that moment a message came through that said, ‘are you dead?’.

The Molly Rose Foundation, a leading online safety charity, has accused the UK’s online regulator Ofcom, of being too slow to act against the threat of the Com, describing policies so far as ‘tokenistic’.

Chief Executive Andy Burrows told LBC: “I am still not convinced that Ofcom are acting on the scale and the urgency of this threat.

“What Ofcom should be doing is to fast-track additional measures to address the harms posed by Com groups that stretch across platforms and across gaming platforms, rather than the kind of tokenistic and piecemeal measures that we've seen so far.

“We cannot be moving at a snail's pace in the face of rapidly escalating and desperately concerning threats.”

Ofcom said it is taking action to tackle the “clear threat” posed by Com networks.

A spokesperson said: “We’ve raised the matter directly with platforms and require that they take appropriate steps to protect people, including by combatting grooming, tackling child sexual abuse material, and using age checks to prevent kids from accessing harmful content.

“More broadly, we’ve shown that we’ll use our enforcement powers against platforms that fail to comply with the Online Safety Act, have already launched investigations into nearly 100 sites, and we’re pushing the industry to go further to make their services safer.”

The Home Office, also very aware of the threat, told LBC it has deployed a team of undercover operatives to infiltrate the Com.

They said: “No society that calls itself civilised can continue to tolerate an online world where children are tortured, exploited and coerced into unthinkable harm. 

“The Home Office funds an undercover network of online officers which last year helped to safeguard 1,748 children from child sexual abuse and arrest 1,797 perpetrators.

“We will use every power we have to hunt down the perpetrators, shut these disgusting networks down, and protect every child at risk.”

The National Crime Agency, however, said “we can’t arrest our way out of this problem” as it called for parents to “be intrusive and know what your children are doing online”.

Advice for parents, carers and professionals can be found at www.ceopeducation.co.uk

And if a child is identified as being involved with a Com group, authorities say they should be discouraged from deleting anything that could be useful in an investigation, including messages, images, videos and usernames.

It should always be reported to police, they say.