How to Spot Radicalisation In Your Child

Would you know the signs of radicalisation if you saw them?

You want to think this couldn’t happen to you. To your own child. Your own son or daughter, a stranger in your home. Sometimes, this impossible, unwanted change can happen right in front of us without us realising. When that happens, and you see your child showing the tell-tale signs of radicalisation, the most important thing you can do is identify the signs early, and intervene to help your child.

The Threat

The Moldovan Security and Intelligence Service have recently uncovered a string of sinister destabilisation schemes. Hostile state actors are using thinly veiled NGOs running schemes to recruit young, sometimes vulnerable people, into training on tactics and techniques of destabilisation.

With links to recruiters from private military organisations like “Wagner” and “Farm” who will often lure and groom their targets first online, these NGO’s are essentially coercing and grooming people into subversive actions. Once vetted, their victims will be offered training in guerrilla style training camps based in Russia, Bosnia, or Serbia.

They’ll learn the tools of their trade, using drones with improvised explosives; home-made incendiaries and even firearms. They’ll rehearse tactics designed to provoke law enforcement; entrenched in sabotage, vandalism and violence. Their goals – to discredit and weaponise legitimate demonstrations; ultimately undermining the very fabric of democratic society.

This kind of recruitment and coercion is nothing new. It shares multiple similarities to those who would be driven to extremism through radicalisation schemes run by Islamist militants from overseas.

The Context

Last year when Police unearthed one of these recruitment cells, they found an intricate network facilitating the travel of 300 people from Moldova to multiple training camps overseas. Some have suggested there could be as many as a hundred other ‘cells’ operating identical schemes across Moldova.

The money comes from The Russian state. They use ‘useful idiots’ (as they call them) to incite violence and dissent across the region throughout history. We saw similar ‘paid traitors’ serving as a precursor for Putin’s ‘Little Green Men’ who invaded Crimea in 2014.

The Dark Lure of an Online World

Every young person today has access to a smart phone or the internet. These devices bring many benefits – but also dangers. Digital radicalisation is everywhere, industrialised through bot farms and co-opted by those who want to hijack democracy.

Young people are susceptible to this digital radicalisation. They want to belong, to see the world in simple terms of black and white, us and them. Radical organisations are seeking to exploit that need in young people.

But you can stop this process… look out for the following signs:

• Expressing a desire to travel into conflict zones – Has your child started talking about the conflict in Ukraine, in a manner that is outside the norm for your family, for example?
• Isolating themselves from friends and family – Has your child started to spend more time alone, such as in their bedroom? Have they stopped seeing their old friends? Are they spending time with an new and unfamiliar group entirely?
• Becoming more secretive about their online activities – Are they cautious or attempting to conceal their interests online?
• Expressing extremist views – If the views and opinions your child expresses sound like they come from someone else, they may have picked these views up from the internet.
• Showing an increased interest in extremist ideologies or groups – Look out for references to extremist groups or facilitators set up as cover to fund trips to Moscow in order to train young people on tactics and methods of carrying out protest actions.
• Spreading extremist propaganda – Has your child started to try and persuade you to adopt views you recognise as extreme or uncharacteristically politicised?
• Changing their appearance or behaviour suddenly – Signs of behavioural change might include increased hostility or withdrawal. Appearance change could also be an indicator, e.g. a sudden adoption of dark or military-style clothing, a shaven head, new tattoos, etc.
• Showing a lack of interest in their usual activities or hobbies – When a new influence comes into a young person’s life and causes them to change. Their old interests and hobbies no longer appeal in the same way, though you will often find that they have not truly lost these interests.

How to Help

Be vigilant. Understand what your children are doing. If you see any sudden changes then take heed and don’t just put it down to youthful rebelliousness. Ultimately as a parent, you have the best chance at intervening and it starts with a conversation. Your child may not agree that something is wrong. It may be hard to talk about your concerns with them. If they get angry or upset and it becomes too difficult to talk, try again another day. It can be difficult to know how to start a conversation on a subject like this. While there is no right or wrong way to do this, here are some tips below to help you get started:

• The best way is to start off asking a question and then listening to them answer.
• Try and bring them on board first and challenge later.
• Create a space and the opportunity for them to talk.
• Don’t try and do a counter narrative, even though you might find their views offensive. Let them express themselves.
• Next time say you want to explore their views in more detail and take an aspect of what they are saying and counter it with a different view point (could be a historical or a theological context).
• Try and engage in healthy debate.
• Seek help and support.

Radicalisation often exploits the need for belonging, so remind them where they really belong.

Act early.

Have the conversation.