The arrest of two teenagers who were planning a terrorist attack on a Taylor Swift concert in Vienna is by no means an isolated case: according to experts, Islamist extremists are increasingly using the Internet to recruit young people, including children.
In addition to the 19-year-old main suspect and a 17-year-old who is employed by a service provider for the Vienna Concert Hall, the police are questioning a 15-year-old. All three were born in Austria and have Turkish, Croatian or North Macedonian families.
The recently foiled terrorist attack is an example of a worrying trend that experts and intelligence agencies are monitoring. According to Peter Neumann, professor of security studies at King’s College London, almost two-thirds of suspects in terrorist or Islamic State-linked attacks in Europe over the past nine months have been teenagers.
In the 27 IS-related cases that Neumann investigated, 38 of 58 suspects were between 13 and 19 years old.
“It is a sign of how quickly jihadist activists are exploiting different social media platforms to reach different age groups,” terrorism researcher Hans Brun, also from King’s College, told the Swedish daily Daily news.
Brun said that in recent months, terrorist organizations appear to have targeted a younger population – some of them children ages 10 to 12.
“This is worrying,” Brun said, because “children at this age do not have good judgment and are very easily manipulated.
Online influencers often encourage children to carry out terrorist attacks themselves, he said, sometimes establishing contacts with older accomplices.
The 19-year-old, who was arrested in Vienna on Wednesday, admitted during questioning that he believed the killing of “infidels” (non-Muslims) was justified. He follows a radical Salafist preacher on TikTok, who currently has 81,000 followers on this platform and 46,000 on Instagram. According to Express, The preacher, who has many followers in Austria, also influenced the 14-year-old potential attacker at a Vienna Pride Parade 2023.
Swedish security police Säpo confirmed that young people, and sometimes children, are often exposed to violent extremist messages via social media and gaming platforms. Säpo spokesman Gabriel Wernstedt said: Daily news The agency can document that “violent extremists are visiting places where young people are to exert influence and recruit.” This should serve as a warning to parents.
Europol reports that the number of attacks and planned attacks has doubled since 2022. Terrorism researcher Brun cites one possible explanation: the Afghanistan-based IS-KP was pushed abroad by the Taliban, while the Islamic State in Syria and Iraq regrouped after the West and Russia withdrew.