Latest news with #CounterTerrorismPolicing
The Irish Sun
23-07-2025
- The Irish Sun
Warning to parents to stop kids accessing toxic content online amid surge in children being brainwashed for terror acts
SECURITY chiefs are calling on parents to stop children accessing toxic online material over the summer holidays. The unprecedented warning comes as it emerged a growing number of kids, some as young as 12, are being 2 The NCA's Alexander Murray also warned of online toxic masculinity as seen in Netflix hit Adolescence. Credit: Courtesy of Netflix. Around one in five people arrested for terrorist offences are aged under 18 and half of all referrals to the Government's Prevent anti-radicalisation programme are children. Appealing to parents yesterday, MI5 boss Sir Ken McCallum said: 'In a few clicks, young people can be speaking to terrorists online, consuming violent content. 'Terrorists are using slick propaganda to pull young people down a dangerous and potentially life-changing path.' He joined chiefs from the National Crime Agency and Counter Terrorism Policing to urge parents and carers to be vigilant about children's use of the internet. READ MORE UK NEWS It was the first such warning ever issued and comes after heads of the 'Five Eyes' nations — the UK, US, Australia , New Zealand and Canada — last year called for action to combat the growing threat to kids posed by online extremism. Counter Terrorism Policing head Vicki Evans said: 'We encourage parents to activate parental controls on routers, devices and apps , and to start the conversation about online safety.' The NCA's Alexander Murray also warned of online toxic masculinity, as seen in Netflix hit Adolescence. He said: 'There is a fast-growing threat from sadistic and violent online gangs . . . including fraud, cyber, child sexual abuse, violence and extremism.' Most read in The Sun Stephen Graham and Ashley Walters' acclaimed drama Adolescence smashes huge Netflix record by DOUBLE after taking world by storm 2 Children as young as 12, are being radicalised and brainwashed into committing acts of terrorism Credit: Getty
The Sun
23-07-2025
- The Sun
Warning to parents to stop kids accessing toxic content online amid surge in children being brainwashed for terror acts
SECURITY chiefs are calling on parents to stop children accessing toxic online material over the summer holidays. The unprecedented warning comes as it emerged a growing number of kids, some as young as 12, are being radicalised and brainwashed into committing acts of terrorism. 2 Around one in five people arrested for terrorist offences are aged under 18 and half of all referrals to the Government's Prevent anti-radicalisation programme are children. Appealing to parents yesterday, MI5 boss Sir Ken McCallum said: 'In a few clicks, young people can be speaking to terrorists online, consuming violent content. 'Terrorists are using slick propaganda to pull young people down a dangerous and potentially life-changing path.' He joined chiefs from the National Crime Agency and Counter Terrorism Policing to urge parents and carers to be vigilant about children's use of the internet. It was the first such warning ever issued and comes after heads of the 'Five Eyes' nations — the UK, US, Australia, New Zealand and Canada — last year called for action to combat the growing threat to kids posed by online extremism. Counter Terrorism Policing head Vicki Evans said: 'We encourage parents to activate parental controls on routers, devices and apps, and to start the conversation about online safety.' The NCA's Alexander Murray also warned of online toxic masculinity, as seen in Netflix hit Adolescence. He said: 'There is a fast-growing threat from sadistic and violent online gangs. . . including fraud, cyber, child sexual abuse, violence and extremism.' Stephen Graham and Ashley Walters' acclaimed drama Adolescence smashes huge Netflix record by DOUBLE after taking world by storm 2
Daily Mail
23-07-2025
- Daily Mail
MI5 boss warns terrorists will recruit children over school summer holidays after record numbers of teenagers are arrested
The head of MI5 has issued an unprecedented warning that terrorists are seeking to recruit children over the summer holidays after record arrests of teenagers. Sir Ken McCallum appealed to parents today warning online offenders will exploit the school break to draw children into criminal acts, saying just a 'few short clicks' can 'pull young people down a dangerous and potentially life-changing path'. The advisory issued for the first time jointly by MI5, Counter Terrorism Policing and the National Crime Agency comes after a record number of teenage arrests for terrorism offences. The Director General of MI5 said: 'In 2024 I said that 13 per cent of all those investigated by MI5 for involvement in terrorism were under 18. 'That deeply concerning presence of young people in our casework continues to this day. 'In a few short clicks, young people can be speaking to dangerous radicalising terrorists online, consuming violent and extremist content. 'Terrorists who understand online culture are using slick propaganda to pull young people down a dangerous and potentially life-changing path.' Of the 219 arrests for terrorism-related offences in 2023, a record 42 suspects were aged 17 or under. Last year there were 39 youngsters arrested aged 17 or under. Counter Terrorism Policing (CTP) is increasingly seeing children being routinely exposed and completely desensitised to extreme and obscene content. Experts fear children will be viewing terrorism content, sexual violence, self-harm and suicide content, extreme gore, animal cruelty and indecent images of children during the summer holidays. CTP senior national coordinator for Prevent and pursue, Vicki Evans, said: 'Unfortunately, every year, we arrest children for terrorism offences, which tend to come about after they are led down the wrong path by extremists seeking to use the internet to target those whose age makes them vulnerable, or as a result of accessing harmful abhorrent content online. 'A significant proportion of their parents were unaware of their child's online activity - who they talked to, the content they viewed, and the sites and platforms they used. 'With the summer holidays now under way and children spending more time online, we're asking parents and carers to have conversations with the young people in their lives about what they are doing online and who they are speaking to. 'None of my colleagues started working in counter terrorism thinking they would be investigating and arresting children as young as 12 for terrorism offences. 'The online environment can be a sanctuary for children to socialise and form strong bonds but for all the benefits it brings, the internet has also globalised extremism. 'It has accelerated the spread of hateful ideologies internationally and made it possible for anyone with an internet connection to reach into the lives of children halfway round the world.' The Met Deputy Assistant Commissioner Matthew Ward said: 'We know parents care deeply about keeping their children safe online and given the ever-developing digital world it can feel like an uphill battle. 'We want parents to empower their children to know what to do if they come across inappropriate content online.' National Crime Agency Director of Threat Leadership Alexander Murray said: 'There is a fast-growing threat from sadistic and violent online gangs, made up predominantly of teenage boys, dedicated to inflicting harm and committing a range of criminality which includes fraud, cyber, child sexual abuse, violence and extremism/terror related offences. 'They are international and operate across multiple channels, including messaging apps, gaming platforms and other online forums. 'We are working closely with our partners in response to this complex threat, but we recommend that adults take time to understand the online lives of young people to help prevent them falling victim to these networks.'
The Independent
15-07-2025
- Politics
- The Independent
Britons urged to be vigilant to family at risk of hostile state manipulation
Britons are urged to watch for family members – including children – being manipulated by hostile foreign states, as counter-terror police warn of a surge in 'threat to life' operations. Petty criminals and disillusioned people are increasingly being used by Russia, China and Iran as proxies to carry out sabotage and surveillance and even arsons and kidnappings in the UK. There has been a fivefold increase in work to tackle hostile state activity since 2018 and 20% of counterterrorism policing's casework involves threats beyond traditional terrorism – primarily state-sponsored espionage, sabotage, and targeted violence, police say. Counter Terrorism Policing's senior national co-ordinator Vicki Evans said there have been 10 charges under the National Security Act since it came into force in December 2023. The head of the Metropolitan Police's Counter Terrorism Command, Dominic Murphy, told a briefing at New Scotland Yard: 'There has never been a time like now for the scale of the threat we see in state threats. 'I said in January 2024 this was about threats to our way of life more than it was about threats to life, but actually that's no longer an accurate description of the threat we face. 'We are increasingly seeing these three states, but not just these three states, undertaking threat to life operations in the United Kingdom alongside those threats to our way of life operations.' He added that those in their 'mid-teens' are the youngest who have been arrested or investigated on suspicion of being involved in such activities. Mr Murphy said that Russia has 'changed tactics' since the Salisbury poisonings in 2018 and are using more unorganised proxies, often reaching out to 'a disenfranchised group of people who are on the criminal fraternity' online. He mentioned the recent convictions of three men after an arson attack on a warehouse linked to Ukraine on behalf of the terrorist Wagner Group, as a 'real example' of how Russia is resorting to criminal proxies to carry out hostile activity. Mr Murphy said that ringleader Dylan Earl, 20, was approached online having been disillusioned with the UK and even offered to create a 'small army' to work on behalf of the Russian state. He told reporters that Iran projects a 'very real physical threat' to people in the UK, saying that officers are disrupting activity on a 'very regular basis'. Mr Murphy said that China is the 'smaller part' of the workload of officers, but that they are alive to threats such as possible secret police stations seeking to influence local communities, as has been seen in New York, and bounties for Hong Kong dissidents. Ms Evans said that criminal proxies are becoming a 'prevalent' tactic and often involve small amounts of money for people tasked to do 'unwittingly significant actions' on behalf of hostile states. She told of concern that young people, who may not be ideologically aligned to the views of a hostile state, are being encouraged online to carry out activities without knowing the implications. The officer added: 'We really encourage people, parents, teachers, professionals, just to be inquisitive. 'If they're concerned, ask those questions, and if they think there's something they need to be concerned about, seek help and act, because we want to make sure that we're protecting people from inadvertently being drawn in this sort of activity.' She went on: 'Espionage operations target our democracy, target our institutions, they threaten to fracture public trust here in our communities and threaten to target the things that underpin our daily life and our way of life.'
Telegraph
02-07-2025
- Telegraph
Four charged over RAF Brize Norton damage claimed by Palestine Action
Four people have been charged after aircraft at RAF Brize Norton in Oxfordshire were damaged. Amy Gardiner-Gibson, 29, and Jony Cink, 24, both of no fixed abode, and Daniel Jeronymides-Norie, 35, and Lewie Chiaramello, 22, both of London, have been remanded in custody after £7 million in damage was caused to two Voyager aircraft on June 20. Counter Terrorism Policing South East (CTPSE) said they had been charged with conspiracy to enter a prohibited place knowingly for a purpose prejudicial to the safety or interests of the United Kingdom, and conspiracy to commit criminal damage. CTPSE said a 41-year-old woman arrested on suspicion of assisting an offender had been released on bail until September 19. A 23-year-old man was released without charge. The four people charged will appear at Westminster Magistrates' Court on Thursday. It comes as Palestine Action were on Wednesday .
