Sixteen-year-olds are coercing and blackmailing 14-year-olds. Sometimes 14-year-olds are coercing and blackmailing 16-year-olds. This is not random bullying. These are the acts of organised child exploitation networks, often run by children themselves.
The latest and arguably the ugliest is known as 764, named after the US zip code for Stephenville, Texas, the home of its founder, Bradley Cadenhead. In 2023, Cadenhead was sentenced to 80 years behind bars after pleading guilty to a raft of offences where he manipulated his victims to produce and send him child sexual abuse material – videos and images of themselves as well as videos showing self-harm and animal abuse. At the time of offending, Cadenhead was 15.
On April 30, the FBI conducted its latest sweep of arrests across the world for 764 members, charging two men, including the alleged leader, Prasan Nepal, with operating an international child exploitation enterprise. Several of their alleged offences took place when they were minors.
“The allegations in this case are not only disturbing, they are also every parent’s nightmare,” US Department of Justice attorney Edward Martin said.
“The number of victims allegedly exploited by these defendants and the depths of depravity are staggering.”
Absent any moral framework, 764 and other exploitation networks rely on a grab bag of extremist ideologies that include Nazism and the occult, each member dipping into a variety of twisted influences. The movement is more easily understood as nihilism. In Sweden, one member boasted of stabbing eight homeless men in indiscriminate attacks.
In Britain in January, another 764 member, Cameron Finnigan, pleaded guilty to encouraging suicide, possessing a terrorism manual and indecent images of a child. Police officers found chat logs where Finnigan had encouraged a teenage Italian girl to film her own suicide online. Finnigan is serving a six-year prison sentence.
In France, 28-year-old Rohan Rane was arrested for producing and disseminating child sexual abuse material that showed he subjected victims to humiliation and self-harm.
His demands included encouraging his child victims to eat their own hair, drink their own urine and produce videos of cutting or self-mutilation events.
Police are playing catch-up. Australian counter-terrorism police in two states now have confirmed to The Australian that 764 is the subject of several investigations. The Australian is aware of at least one child victim residing in Australia. There are bound to be more.
A large part of the problem is social media’s diffusion. Better-known platforms such as Kik and Telegram claim to operate within the laws but boast about their ability to operate outside of government oversight. Thirteen-year-old users can sign on to Kik, according to the app. Kik is widely known as an online cesspit of drug supply and pornography. Omegle was a free, web-based online chat service that allowed users to file share and screen videos. It was shut down after its developer faced a 2019 lawsuit alleging one of its users was a victim of child exploitation. It has been replaced with platforms such as Monkey and OmeTV. Members of 764 often lurk in what are overtly safe online spaces such as Roblox where young users gather to discuss online gaming.
Authorities around the world have become increasingly alarmed that 764 and related groups such as CVLT (pronounced “cult”), an online group that espoused neo-Nazism, nihilism and pedophilia as its core principles, No Lives Matter, and satanic neo-Nazi group the Order of Nine Angles, which originated in Britain, are expanding their activities into encouraging acts of mass murder, spree shootings and domestic terrorism.
Since the start of 2020, Australia’s counter-terrorism teams have investigated and conducted operational activity against 35 individuals aged 17 or younger, with the youngest aged 12.
These include a 14-year-old in Australia who said on Snapchat that they planned to conduct a school shooting at their high school and had access to firearms and explosives.
In a separate case, a 16-year-old Australian advocated attacks on people of a non-white appearance and urged others to prepare for an upcoming race war to “defend the white race”.
Security agencies would say only that the teenager was socially isolated, with few real-world relationships.
Regulation of social media is only one step and it will always be inadequate. Laws introduced in 2024 in Australia now prevent children under 16 from joining social media platforms such as Facebook, Insta and so on.
I don’t support these laws for two reasons: a) they won’t work with tech-proficient youth and b) the entire exercise abrogates parental responsibilities to the government.
Law enforcement and security agencies prefer that little fuss is made of these dangerous groups, fearing mimicry by others so inclined may exaggerate the problem. I prefer the cleansing power of sunlight.
The fight with groups such as 764 must involve having more open conversations with a proper understanding of what our children are being exposed to. Better the devil you know. Parents also may seek to remind their children that no matter how bad things may seem, they will always be cherished, loved and protected.
The existence of 764 is a reminder, too, that some children of the internet generation lack any basic moral framework and quickly become radicalised in their violent echo chambers. They are by definition amoral, anarchic and very dangerous.
More Coverage
It’s demeaning to be promoted by anything other than hard work, ability
We do need more women in the party, but quotas are not the answer. We need to attract more women at branch membership level if we want more women on the frontbench.
To succeed, we must have strong ties with Indonesia
Our northern neighbour will be one of the world’s top five economies by 2040. This thriving nation is a sure thing in a time of great economic turbulence and uncertainty.