Asio and Australian federal police have revealed that two teenagers aged 16 and 14 have been convicted under Australia’s counter-terrorism laws and warned that “shocking” numbers of their priority cases involve young people.
The anonymised details of the two unrelated cases have been published as part of an unprecedented coordinated plea from security agencies in the Five Eyes countries – Australia, the US, Britain, Canada and New Zealand – for their citizens to do more to stop young people falling prey to radical, violent ideologies.
“In every one of the terrorist attacks, disruptions and suspected terrorist incidents in Australia this year, the alleged perpetrator was a young person,” Asio’s director-general, Mike Burgess, said in a statement accompanying the analysis.
“Parents, teachers, health professionals and frontline workers need to understand and identify the early signs of radicalisation. Once Asio and the AFP get involved, it is usually too late – the young person is already in a dark and dangerous place.”
The Australian federal police commissioner, Reece Kershaw, said the AFP wanted parents, teachers and healthcare workers to help limit children’s access to violent extremist material. Since 2020, Kershaw said, security agencies had investigated 35 young people aged 17 or younger, with the youngest aged 12, and 57% had been charged with extremism-related offences.
“As a parent, the numbers are shocking,” Burgess said, revealing that 20% of counter-terrorism cases involve young people. “As an intelligence officer, the numbers are sobering.”
Titled “Young people and violent extremism: a call for collective action”, the paper warns that mental ill health, neurodiversity and social isolation are among the characteristics making young people vulnerable to exploitation, especially on gaming sites and messaging platforms.
The first Australian case in the paper involves a 16-year-old who came to the attention of the joint counter-terrorism team of federal, state and territory security agencies after sharing ideologically motivated violent material online.
The teenager was “advocating for attacks on persons of non-Caucasian appearance, and urged others to prepare for an upcoming race war to defend the white race”, including discussing carrying out a mass killing offshore which would be livestreamed online. The case study says the person was seeking help to make bombs, praising mass shooters and suggesting “high-profile enemies” to target.
The 16-year-old was convicted of advocating terrorism and sentenced to 18 months’ jail.
The other case involved a 14-year-old who adhered to a “nationalist and racist violent extremist ideology”, expressed strong admiration for terrorist attacks and posted on Snapchat that he planned to carry out a shooting at their high school.
The paper said the child had boasted of having access to enough guns and explosives to kill a large number of students and was known for being racist towards people of Asian and Indigenous heritage. He was found to have a tactical vest and ballistic helmet when security officers conducted a search.
The 14-year-old was sentenced to a two-year good behaviour bond and 12 months’ probation for a range of terrorism advocacy offences.
The paper urges Australians to watch for signs of radicalisation and to question children, warning that the process can begin with “moderately objectionable material containing violent extremist narratives”, which then intensifies.
It points to “seemingly innocuous” platforms including Discord, Instagram, Roblox and TikTok, which can be used for first approaches to minors and enable access to violent extremist content because it can be created within the platforms.
“Minors are increasingly normalising violent behaviour in online groups including joking about carrying out terrorist attacks and creating violent extremist content, which further complicates the role of counter-terrorism agencies in seeking to identify genuine online threats,” the paper says.
The two agency chiefs flagged an upcoming government strategy on counter-terrorism and violent extremism, which had been partly informed by the Five Eyes collaboration.
