Children ‘drawn into terrorists’ web aged just 13’

CHILDREN as young as 13 are starting to talk about committing terror attacks, the UK’s head of counter-terrorism policing warned yesterday.

Metropolitan Police assistant commissioner Neil Basu said he was worried about the number of teenagers being sucked into terror, particularly those groomed by Right-wing extremists.

He called for more to be done in primary schools to turn children away from extremism as he warned MPs the pandemic had given rise to teenagers aspiring to commit atrocities because they are ‘just interested in violence’.

At home without the distraction of school or friends, children had been lured via social media on to encrypted sites where Right-wing extremism is ‘fermenting’, he said.

‘We don’t see that Covid-19 has increased the terrorist threat – what it has done is increased the amplification of hateful extremism,’ he added.

‘What I am seeing, particularly in the Right-wing terrorism space – and this is anecdotal, not academic – is an increase in lots of young people being attracted to this. We are seeing people as young as 13 starting to talk about committing terrorist attacks.’

He told the home affairs committee many of the youngsters had no identifiable ideology and 38 per cent of referrals to the Government’s deradicalisation programme Prevent were now prompted by concerns about people with ‘mixed ideologies’.

He said: ‘ We don’t know whether it’s Islamist or Rightwing or Left-wing extremism or Incel [“involuntary celibates”, mostly online groups of men who cannot find sexual partners]. They are just interested in violence.

‘Now when you have been locked down with social media having such an influence on every single one of us in our daily lives, and you are able to just sit there and take all of that in on a permanent basis, with no other forms of distraction or protective factor around you – and I’m thinking schooling, employment, other friends, family members who are not influenced or potentially extremist themselves – that is a concern.

‘That is definitely an effect of Covid-19 we are worried about.’

He called for more intervention in primary schools to teach children about ‘the concept of rules- based order and law’ before it is ‘too late’.

‘The only way to cure this long term is right at the start of the journey,’ he told MPs.

‘Now I have got 12, 13, 14-yearolds both in the gangland space and in terrorism, so how do we intervene and safeguard people long before they even get sucked into this radicalism? That is where a lot more effort has to go in.’

Mr Basu said the average terrorist profile was a male under 30 but he added: ‘What has been disturbing is the number that are becoming much younger. It is still small... but the worrying thing is the trajectory is downwards in age terms.’

He said the pandemic had ‘amplified the problem’ of online grooming as youngsters are seeing extremist material promoting Right-wing groups such as National Action on video hosting platforms such as BitChute.

Right- wing terrorism now occupies 10 per cent of counterterrorism casework, up from 6 per cent in 2016, he added.

‘Just interested in violence’