Teachers urged to spot signs of online radicalisation in children

SSP advisers are training teachers to recognise early signs that children may be drifting towards harmful online communities, DR reports. SSP is a cooperation between schools, social services and the police.

In the municipalities of Stevns and Vordingborg, SSP advisers have invited teachers and other professionals to courses on online radicalisation. The training will focus on small changes in children’s behaviour that may be linked to violent online communities.

“It is important that teachers know about young people’s online world and are aware of the early signs of radicalisation,” said Maria Ellinghart, an SSP adviser in Stevns Municipality. She held her first preventive presentation for schoolteachers on Thursday.

“Many young people may show signs and attitudes in the classroom that they do not necessarily share at home. That is why teachers need to pay attention if they notice a change in a child,” Ellinghart said.

Vordingborg Municipality’s SSP department has invited teachers and other professionals to a course in early September. The invitation has also been sent to staff at schools, after-school programmes and clubs, as well as school IT staff.

“They have insight into the computers that pupils borrow from the schools,” said Michael Cardow, an SSP adviser in Vordingborg. He said the aim was to improve prevention and make staff more attentive to the online worlds young people use.

The course was planned in the spring and is not a response to the case in eastern Jutland in which three teenagers were charged this week under terrorism legislation over plans to attack a school. However, Cardow said the case underlined the importance of training colleagues to identify potentially deviant behaviour.

According to information obtained by DR, authorities suspect that the teenagers charged in the eastern Jutland terrorism case had links to the sadistic NVE network.

What is NVE?

NVE, or nihilistic violent extremism, covers many shifting groups. Some of the most widespread in recent years have been The Community, also known as The Com, and 764. These internet cults pressure vulnerable children and young people to carry out extreme acts.

Self-harm, torture, the killing of pets, acts of violence, sexual assaults, murder and suicide are livestreamed in online chat groups, according to the article. The blackmailers are often other children and young people, a phenomenon also known as youth-on-youth crime.

“Fortunately, these specific networks do not take up much space in schoolchildren’s digital lives,” said Ask Hesby Holm, director of the membership organisation Digitalt Ansvar. But he said violence itself was widespread and could help draw young people into sadistic networks by shifting their perception of what is normal.

“It is far too late when someone has become radicalised. We need to act before that happens,” Holm said. He welcomed the decision by some schools to place greater emphasis on preventing online radicalisation and praised SSP departments for initially directing their information efforts at schools and professionals.

Holm said parents could also benefit from learning more about their children’s digital lives. However, he advised them to approach conversations with children carefully, incorporating the subject into ordinary discussions about screen time and boundaries.

“This is very serious, and I think we should remember that it is nevertheless rare for something to escalate into violent acts,” he said.