Social media and public trust decline leading to teen radicalisation

It comes as police arrested seven teenagers allegedly connected to the Wakeley church assailant through an encrypted group chat that shared extremist ideology.

Deakin University extremism expert Josh Roose said increasing radicalisation of minors was a ‘global phenomenon’.

Mobile phones and social media are key drivers of increasing extremism among minors, experts say.

It comes as police arrested seven Sydney teenagers on Wednesday in relation to the Wakeley church stabbing the week prior, which has been declared a terrorist incident. Those seven were allegedly connected to the 16-year-old arrested for stabbing the bishop through an encrypted group chat that shared extremist ideology. A phone belonging to one of those teenagers allegedly had six videos of beheadings and other violent acts overlayed with the Islamic State emblem and music.

Deakin University extremism expert Josh Roose said increasing radicalisation of minors was a “global phenomenon”.

“A key element of this is … the role of the mobile phone in the life of our young people nowadays,” he said.

“What you have now is the capacity of people to immerse themselves in worlds completely at odds with their physical space and their physical influences – their peers, their parents, imams.”

Australian Strategic Policy Institute expert John Coyne attributed this rise in part to a decline in public trust.

“There’s most definitely been a decline in public trust … in democracies in Western countries,” he said.

“People feel frustrated that legitimate airing of political beliefs, political participation, civics, are much more difficult at the moment.

“An increasing number of Australians, especially young Australians, have that feeling of distrust. So if they have a strong ideological bent in one direction, then they’re going to … be increasingly frustrated that they can’t get traction to bring about the change they think needs to occur.”

Dr Coyne also attributed increasing radicalisation to a feeling of anonymity online.

ASIO director-general Mike Burgess on Wednesday said minors were taking up an increasing share of the agency’s counter-terrorism workload.

He requested greater co-operation on the part of technology firms with law enforcement and intelligence agencies, and drew attention to end-to-end encryption.

“Communication through encrypted messaging is beyond the reach of parents and authorities alike to interdict,” Dr Roose said.

Dr Coyne said greater education was needed to inoculate children from extremist messaging on social media.