Amidst rise in online extremism, experts warn parents to be aware of their child’s digital activity

With numerous teens in Calgary and across the region facing terrorism charges, experts are sounding the alarm over the rise of online extremist groups targeting kids, and they say it’s more important than ever for parents to keep a close eye on their children’s’ online activity.

They go by many names, such as ‘676’, ‘Harm Nation,’ and ‘Leak Society,’ and Brad Galloway, co-ordinator for the Centre of Hate, Bias, and Extremismn says extremist groups target children affiliated with highly politicized online hate groups and pages.

“Often online area is sort of the meet and greet, try and understand who people are, build a relationship and then get the person to feel like they belong to something and get them to progress to an offline act,” he explained. “These groups are looking around for members of vulnerable groups or vulnerable people that would be subject to radicalization,” he said.

Galloway says they range in beliefs and ideologies, but all of them are extremely manipulative and dangerous, with many influencing kids to commit crime, and self harm.

Currently, four Calgary teens are currently at the centre of a national security investigation, after being arrested over terrorism-related TikTok videos.

Just last month, a 14-year-old boy from Lethbridge was arrested on child pornography and explosive-making charges, and was found to be “deeply-entrenched” in extremist ideology online.

Mount Royal University associate criminal justice professor Kelly Sundberg says the tabling of the Online Harms Act on Feb. 26 is a good start to tackling the rapid spread of online extremist groups, which he says has been getting noticeably worse since 2021.

“Now we see this perfect storm emerge with world conflicts, with the propensity of social media, coupled with younger generations coming out of COVID,” he said.

Sundberg adds that most of the time, kids don’t go out looking for extremist content, as it’s usually pushed through algorithms.

“They put content out there that gets rapidly dispersed among young people, it’s all designed to enrage them and get them angry to take up a cause,” he said.

But, he says the province is doing as lot to address the issue, including the newly-launched website to connect organizations and non-profits with cyber-security professionals.

“We really are putting the needed investment, I really hope more comes in, but Minister Mike Ellis has been doing quite a bit of really good work in this area and I hope other provinces follow suit, especially the federal government,” Sundberg said.

Galloway says parents can protect their kids by monitoring their activity both on and offline.

“A lot of times the youth will start dressing differently or acting differently, changing their interest in music, any kind of drastic behaviour changes too –spending a lot of time on different apps,” he said.