Record number of children arrested on suspicion of terror offences
Young children are being arrested at a rate of nearly one a week for terrorism offences and plotting attacks on British soil, an LBC investigation has discovered
Young children are being arrested at a rate of nearly one a week for terrorism offences and plotting attacks on British soil, an LBC investigation has discovered.
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Counter Terrorism Police have arrested 43 children in the past year, some as young as 11, for offences including preparing bomb and mass gun attacks.
One in five of all 232 terror arrests last year are children under the age of 17.
In an exclusive interview, an undercover officer in Counter Terrorism Policing told LBC how young boys are being targeted on Snapchat and TikTok, encouraging them to join their radical encrypted chat rooms on Telegram.
It is on those chat rooms that “terror handbooks” are being shared with the children, including manuals of how to make bombs and build 3D printed guns .
The officer, who cannot be identified, said: “You name it and you’ll see it being shared.
“There are sadistically horrible people out there. These people who are driving the threat aren't actually committing the offences themselves.
“What they actually prefer is to encourage other people, give other people the resources, poke other individuals, exacerbate their grievances, encourage those to go out and carry out an attack. And they are doing that with young people.”
The majority of the arrests have been for extreme right-wing terrorism, but there has also been a rise in the number of arrests inspired by Islamist extremism in the last year.
Security sources have told LBC that many of the posts are from accounts in Russia.
He added: "We've got a huge issue where primarily young boys feel under attack. There is now that male toxicity thing that is pumped through the media.
“So a lot of youngsters will seek to find answers to those, and there's not many people talking about that in the mainstream, and that's why the extremists will exploit those."
The officer said that the extremists are using issues such as the channel crossings and asylum hotel crisis as propaganda to stoke anger and recruit young people for terrorism.
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LBC has seen some of the material being shared on social media networks.
One shows images of Hitler and the burning of the flag of Israel.
Another encourages the young person to join their Telegram channel. The text reads: “You can do more. We will teach you. You can be someone. You can make a difference. All you have to do is join our chat.”
In one case, a 16-year-old boy was arrested after planning a terror attack at the Isle of Wight festival. He was jailed for seven years.
Counter Terrorism Policing agreed to speak exclusively to LBC to warn parents across the country to monitor the activity of young people online.
He added that “thousands” of posts on both Snapchat and TikTok are identified every month.
TikTok said it does not allow violent and hateful organisations or individuals on its platform and is working with the UK Government and other organisations to quickly detect extremist content and take it down from the platform.
Telegram has removed 170,000 terror-related chat rooms in the past year.
A spokesperson for the platform said extremist propaganda is banned on the platform, and claimed it is not an effective tool for radicalisation because it doesn’t use recommendation algorithms.
A spokesperson for Snapchat said: “The safety of young people on Snapchat is paramount and we strictly prohibit content that promotes hate, terrorism and violent extremism. We have requested additional information about the content in this report so we can investigate.
“Our safety teams take quick action on violating content, and we regularly engage with UK police. Our team works 24/7 to review and respond to law enforcement requests and support investigations.”
Meanwhile, a Home Office spokesperson told LBC: “The UK’s threat picture is complex, evolving and enduring, which is why we have one of the strongest counter-terrorism frameworks in the world.
"This includes a wide range of specialist counter-terrorism powers to detect, investigate and disrupt terrorist activity.
“To support these efforts, we’ve introduced new enforcement tools, enhanced Prevent measures, while continuing to back our police and intelligence services in tackling the threat.
"We will always ensure that we have the necessary tools and resources to tackle radicalisation, protect the public and respond to diversifying threats, including the growing involvement
