32 of 37 youth counter-terror prosecutions came in past two years

Two Darwin teenagers charged with collecting terrorism documents

Thirty-two of the 37 young people prosecuted in counter-terrorism cases since 2020 were charged in the past two years, the Australian Federal Police said this week in warning of a surge in teen extremism. The figures build on a March Guardian Australia revelation that most people who have been charged with the new federal crime of possession of violent extremist material are under 18.

The growth in youth extremism is happening within a sprawling online ecosystem: networks that urge violence and nihilism for their own sake, in which perpetrators coerce victims not much younger than themselves to commit brutal and degrading acts.

In a review of 55 youth terrorism cases, the AFP found the profile of those charged is mixed. They are often young men, and many have received some support or intervention for a mental health condition. Some are from stable homes, others not. What they have most in common, according to the review, is that they are young people on the internet. Experts say the age of those caught up in these crimes is decreasing.

The newest charges came in the Northern Territory. In the past month, two teenagers in Darwin have been charged with collecting documents that could facilitate acts of terrorism. The second teenager was arrested after an initial examination of documents and electronic devices at a Northern Territory home, according to the AFP, allegedly found material and online discussions “including glorification of mass casualty attacks at schools”.

Those arrests came five months after another Northern Territory teenager was charged with making posts with “pro-Nazi, anti-immigration, anti-trans and white nationalist themes”. The charge sheet alleges he also possessed videos of white nationalist terrorist attacks, including the 2019 Christchurch mosque shooting and the 2022 Buffalo shooting that it partly inspired. All matters are still before the courts.

Experts involved in harm-prevention programs, including the Victoria University professor Debra Smith, have watched the age of this cohort decrease dramatically over the past decade. Instead of considering the challenge exclusively through the lens of radicalisation, Smith says, some young people are being socialised and finding identity in online spaces that may appear exciting and transgressive but are ultimately harmful to themselves, and may encourage them to do harm to others. She has seen cases where teenagers are being found with “hard drives full of what can only be described as gore”.

“It’s like getting involved in any other … unhealthy subcultural aspect of life … [such as] gangs or crime for payment,” Smith says. “There’s this offering of what young people can look at and get involved in that just simply wasn’t there years ago.”

The Guardian’s investigation into the growth of extremist material charges, as well as the surge of young people in Australia ensnared in sadistic online extortion and gore networks, reveals an amorphous online ecosystem in which young people may easily come into contact with extreme and violent content.

A teenager in New South Wales who pleaded guilty to possessing violent extremist material, among other charges, described how he first came across such content on TikTok when he was 14 and sought validation by talking to others online. He used ChatGPT to research the Boston marathon bomber Dzhokhar Tsarnaev as well as security arrangements at the Sydney Opera House. He was sentenced to a three-year community corrections order.

Others have told police how they became involved in so-called “gore” channels on Telegram, where more and more extreme footage — including of animal abuse — is traded.

Given the age of many involved, Levi West, a research fellow at the Australian National University, says they may be considered as much victims as perpetrators, which is a significant challenge for how authorities respond. It’s important for parents, schools and others to think about what’s sitting underneath the uptick in numbers, he says, and not just the “algorithms”. He points to the legacies of Covid-19 and lockdowns as well as the presence of screens and digital technologies in the lives of young people. “We are not going to arrest our way out of this problem,” West says.

The Guardian’s investigation into the possession of extremist material charges in South Australia and around the country found that many of those who had been before the courts faced a range of health and social difficulties, including autism diagnoses and learning challenges — and raised questions about whether some young people understand a crime has been committed.

Smith has seen many young people caught up in these activities who come from troubled family backgrounds, while others have had every opportunity in life. There is a role for everyone involved in caring for young people, she says, from parents and schools to sporting clubs, to recognise when someone might be engaging in harmful behaviours long before there is a risk of violence, then help them access non-punitive pathways for help.

“It’s really important to understand it through a developmental lens – that these are young people who are making decisions with young brains,” Smith says. “My grave concern is that if we are just giving everyone terrorism offences at [age] 12, 13, 14, 15, we’re starting to label them the thing that they will become.”

With people as young as 13 before the courts, Guardian Australia’s analysis argues, Australia must consider if authorities are taking the right approach and have the right resources for this challenge.