Save our children from clunking fist of terror laws
The growing number of children being arrested for terrorism offences is one consequence of the easy availability online of terrorist propaganda, images and manifestos.
In 2021 alone, 20 children were arrested by counter-terrorism police. That’s separate from the hundreds being referred to the Prevent programme and reflects a pattern seen in recent years. This is troubling, not just because of the danger they may pose if unchecked, but because of the long-term impact on young lives and society if those arrests lead to convictions.
On the responsibility of tech companies, there has been great public misunderstanding. The scalability of the internet means that one or two tech-savvy individuals can create a platform with extraordinary reach. Such small platforms lack the capacity to moderate vast amounts of content. Bad actors who want to promote extreme right and Islamist terrorism pile in. Worse, some tech companies knowingly facilitate the hosting of the terrorist websites — promoting hardcore violent extremism — and take payment for their services.
Even the biggest companies, which try to exclude terrorist content, only do so now after years of prioritising blitz growth over evil social consequences, and are limited by practical realities in what they can achieve. Detecting online terrorism is not, regrettably, as simple as searching for a set of hashtags.
The Government’s online safety legislation won’t solve everything. It may also be about investigating using terrorist financing laws, and going after the service providers that profit from terrorist content. As for the children, the traditional terrorist model of arrest and prosecute ill suits suspects who hardly belong in the same category as Al Qaeda, the new IRA, or Islamic State.
They’re less ideological, more confused. But police lack other ways of managing this risk. New ways of diverting children from the clunking fist of terrorism legislation must be found.
Too many young lives are being ruined at the moment and there should be better ways of dealing with these toxic consequences of the internet.
Source: Standard
