MI5 chairman claims the intelligence organization is seeing “far too many cases where very young people are being drawn into poisonous online extremism”.
The head of Britain’s domestic intelligence agency has attributed a “staggering” increase in the number of minors under investigation for possible terrorist activities to extreme right-wing ideology.
MI5 chief Ken McCallum stated on Tuesday that his organization had looked into an increasing number of plans backed by Iran and that Russian intelligence was attempting to create “mayhem” in Britain due to its backing of Ukraine.
According to McCallum, 13% of those the spy agency is looking into for potential involvement in terror operations are under the age of 18.
He reported to reporters at the London headquarters of MI5, the Counter Terrorism Operations Centre, that the figure represented “a threefold increase in the last three years”.
McCallum cited the ease with which children may obtain “inspirational and instructional material” from the comfort of their bedrooms as the “biggest factor” contributing to the increase.
He added that “far too many cases where very young people are being drawn into poisonous online extremism” were being observed by the intelligence service, which also identified “canny” internet memes.
significant danger
“Extreme right-wing terrorism in particular skews heavily towards young people, driven by propaganda that shows a cann y understanding of online culture,” he stated.
“It’s not really a consistent single ideology on the extreme right-wing side and that is what has skewed the numbers most heavily.”
The third highest degree of threat (“substantial”) for terrorism in the UK indicates that an attack is likely.
Since March 2017, MI5 and the police have thwarted over 40 late-stage attack plots, sparing “many lives,” according to McCallum.
He went on to say that the Daesh group had “resumed efforts to export terrorism” and that the number of inquiries into hostile state plans had increased by 48% in the previous year.
McCallum claimed that because of Britain’s backing for Ukraine, Russia’s intelligence service had attempted to wreak “mayhem” in the United Kingdom.
He continued, “MI5 has responded to 20 plots backed by Iran that posed potentially fatal threats to British citizens and UK residents since January 2022.”
