Out Of Harm's Way: Protecting Young People From The Increased Risks Of Online Extremism

• Law Firm: BCL Solicitors LLP
• Subject Matter: Government, Public Sector, Terrorism, Homeland Security & Defence
• Author: Ms Suzanne Gallagher
• Published date: 03 February 2023

Suzanne Gallagher examines the UK's proposed response to the rising tide of young people engaging in terrorist activity online.

Responding to Recent Trends

It was recently reported that ministers are studying plans for the introduction of terrorism prevention orders specifically for children. These would, it is reported, compel children involved in terrorist activity (where there is no evidence of attack-planning), to accept help as an alternative to a conviction and custodial sentence.

According to Jonathan Hall KC, the independent reviewer of terrorism legislation, the new orders would work as follows: children aged 17 or under who have been arrested for lower-level terrorism offences would be given a choice. They could either risk prosecution, imprisonment and a criminal record or accept "stringent measures". The proposed measures include monitoring software on their electronic devices to detect if they are accessing extremist material, limits on their use of devices, and potentially limits on whom they could contact. The child would attend mentoring sessions to divert them from belief in violent extremism. Breaching these conditions would be an offence.

Hall's annual report, delivered to government in December, contains further details but is yet to be published.

The proposal was prompted by a growing number of arrests for lower-level terrorism offences involving children. In the year to September 2020, 4% of terrorism-related arrests were aged under 18. In the year to September 2022, 17% were under 18s. That equates to 32 arrests: 12 were suspected of extreme right-wing terrorism, 16 were suspected of Islamist extremism, and for four children the ideology could not be classified.

Children as young as 13 have been arrested. Police have warned that children from middle-class backgrounds are being lured into extreme right-wing terrorism with online content based on violent video games designed to indoctrinate them.

Measures have already been put in place to tackle the problem. Statistics for Prevent, the UK government deradicalisation scheme, show a growing number of young people being referred. In 2020, a dedicated website called ACT Early was launched, designed to offer advice and support for parents and family members who think their loved one might be on a dangerous path towards extremism.

Tragic Consequences

The news of the death by suicide of a teenage girl provided a devastating example of what can happen to a vulnerable child involved in...