A warning has been issued to parents that ore children are being drawn into extremism online with youths now accounting for one in five counter terrorism cases.
The officer who led the Alfie Coleman terrorist investigation issued the warning after the neo-Nazi was jailed.
Detective Chief Superintendent Helen Flanagan called for parents to be more vigilant, saying “horrific” terrorist manifestos and other extreme material are just “one click” away.
The head of operations for the Met’s Counter Terrorism Command spoke out about the growing trend as Coleman, now 21, from Essex, was found guilty of planning a mass gun attack.
Coleman was thwarted thanks to a joint operation between police and MI5, which deployed undercover operatives to engage Coleman online as he tried to buy automatic weapons.
Police swooped in to arrest Coleman moments after he picked up a Makarov handgun and ammunition in a car park in east London.
He was aged 19 at the time but the process of online radicalisation began five years before, although his parents were unaware.
Ms Flanagan told the PA news agency: “Alfie Coleman was dangerous. Clearly he was seeking to get firearms and ammunition. His intent was to carry out a terrorist attack. He posed a lethal threat to the public.
“We were really concerned about his behaviour and luckily with the work that we did with MI5, we were able to manage that threat.”
The Old Bailey trial had heard how Coleman was aged just 14 when he first become interested in extreme right-wing material on the open web and was heavily influenced by the manifestos of neo-Nazi mass killers whom he idolised as saints and warriors.
Ms Flanagan said: “Unfortunately we are seeing younger and younger individuals getting radicalised online. Now one in five people that we deal with in counter-terrorism is a child.
“We are seeing more and more referrals to Prevent (the multi-agency programme which aims to stop individuals becoming terrorists) at a younger age. It is a concern for us around young people getting caught into terrorism through the online influence.
“Alfie was 14 when he first started to look at content online and we had concerns about his behaviour.
“I think where people are living their lives online they’re getting exposed, and there is an awful lot of horrific material online that is influencing young people.
“So clearly we are keen to intervene at the earliest opportunity to prevent that ideation and radicalisation happening and turning into a real-world threat.”
The officer was keen to point out that extreme material is not just on the dark web but is easily accessible through a simple online search.
“I think the perception is that it’s on the dark web and your children aren’t going to be exposed to that, but it’s not, it’s on the open web.
“With a couple of clicks, you can certainly start to see some of that horrific material. And the more you see, obviously with algorithms, the more you’re getting exposed to.
“It is there available – and available to all our children,” she said.
The accessibility of “manifestos” by the likes of mass killers Anders Breivik, Dylann Roof and Christchurch terrorist Brenton Tarrant remains an “ongoing challenge” for police, she said.
Ms Flanangan said: “We’ve seen those individuals held as warriors, as people that inspire other attacks.
“He (Coleman) read their manifestos and then created his own manifesto around carrying out an attack.
“So it’s clearly concerning that we have got individuals that are influenced online and hold these people in such high regard.”
Ms Flanagan said parents and carers should take “basic steps” and initiate conversations with their children to guard against radicalisation.
She said: “One click, two clicks to find material. So it’s about understanding what your children are doing and really trying to be quite intrusive with them around what they’ve been exposed to.”
For more information and advice, people can contact Act Early via actearly.uk
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