‘Pick and mix of horror’ online pushes young people to violence, UK police chief says
Share:
Counter-terrorism leader says there is often no ideology behind ‘grotesque fascinations’ with extreme content. More young people are viewing a “pick and mix of horror” on the web that pushes them towards violence, a counter-terrorism leader has said.
Deputy assistant commissioner Vicki Evans of the Metropolitan police, the senior national coordinator for counter-terrorism, said the nature of radicalisation had changed and warned of a “rapidly increasing fascination with extreme content that we’re seeing throughout our casework”.
Evans said suspects increasingly had no ideology or would scour the internet for material justifying or depicting violence from different sources. She added: “The type of material that we’re encountering, and my officers and staff are encountering in casework, is absolutely staggering and horrific.
“We are seeing search histories which contain violence, misogyny, gore, extreme pornography, racism, fascination with mass violence, school massacres, incel, and sometimes that’s coupled with terrorist material. It is a pick and mix of horror, horrific content.
“These sort of grotesque fascinations with violence and harmful views that we’re seeing are increasingly common.”. Detectives in the counter-terrorism policing network are expending huge amounts of time and resources on digital forensics, uncovering young people who are seeking extreme material, which is “hugely worrying”, she said.
