Children as young as 12 and 13 are turning to terrorism, warns police chief

Increasing numbers of children as young as 12 and 13 are turning to terrorism because of a surge in "hateful extremism" online, Britain's most senior counter-terror police officer has warned.

Assistant Commissioner Neil Basu, head of counter-terrorism, said there had been a "disturbing" trend in younger children being groomed by radicalisers exploiting social media to lure in recruits. "The worrying thing is that the trajectory is downwards in age," he added.

Backing the Government's plans for a new statutory duty of care on tech firms to combat online harms, he said: "One of the greatest threats to this country is the fomentation of hatred online."

He said "a lot more" young people were being attracted to extremist ideologies. "People as young as 13 have started talking about committing terrorist acts," he said.

Increasing numbers had mixed or no fixed ideology and instead were simply committed to violence, he told MPs on the Home Affairs Committee.

Nearly four in ten (38 per cent) of those referred to the Government's Prevent deradicalisation programme were neither Islamist nor right-wing but of no determined ideology. "They are just interested in violence," he said.

He said social media has been a strong influence, particularly during the coronavirus lockdown when there was "no other form of distraction or protective factor", like school, work or other friends and relatives being present. As a result, hateful extremism had been “amplified.”

Radicalisers would start on the major open platforms before they “lured” potential recruits either onto sites like BitChute and 4Chan which were full of extremist material or onto close encrypted groups.

"That's where they will groom them. That's happening younger because they are tech savvy and they are on these platforms that are not policed," said Mr Basu.

He said the threat from right wing terrorism and extremism had nearly doubled, and now accounted for 10 per cent of his caseload, up from six per cent in 2016 which was “worrying.” The Islamist threat remained at 75 per cent.

Mr Basu said counter-terror police and MI5 had more than 800 terror investigations under way, and a predicted 30 per cent rise in the threat since 2017 is "still there" and "sustained at that very high level".

Describing the threat as "diverse, complex and unpredictable", he said encryption on messaging services had made it "very difficult to see terrorists communicating".

There have also been changes in the types of terrorists police are dealing with, their "methodology and vector of attack", he added.

He said 15 of the 16 attacks since 2010 had been carried out by "lone actors", but he added this was a "poor definition" as they rarely operated completely alone, often discussing plans with someone else, although they are not directed, supported or financed by a terrorist group.

While the ability of terrorist groups to "direct and inspire overseas" had been limited by the decline of Isil and Al Qaeda, he warned their power to influence young people through social media and propaganda was undiminished.

He also wants more work to be done to address security measures at the 600,000 publicly accessible spaces around the country, amid fears they could be a target as "terrorists will go for the crowd".

Police planned to step up training and advice on low-cost security measures for businesses as there was “no way” police could make all such sites secure.

Sara Khan, the counter-extremism tsar, told MPs the Government should consider whether platforms like BitChute - a video sharing site for far right and conspiracy theorists - and 4chan, which has been linked to terror attacks . “Nothing should be off the table,” she said.

She cited evidence of BitChute hosing anti-semitic and supremacist material including support for the banned Far Right group National Action, which Mr Basu said he would investigate.

Ms Khan urged the Government to give her Commission a formal role with the online harms regulator, expected to be Ofcom, to tackle online extremism. “We want to put forward a rigorous classification system like for drugs,” she said.