In a recent police operation, anti-terrorist investigators who patrol social networks detected several profiles that professed jihadism: through the justification of violence in defense of Islam or the glorification of armed groups. The surprise – although it is becoming increasingly common – came when once the owners of those profiles were identified, they turned out to be underage students, residents of Barcelona and Madrid, who had verbalized their desire to carry out an attack.
But until reaching the point of taking action – tasks such as the preparation of explosives were even distributed – there is a prior radicalization process among “digital natives”, which upsets the Security Forces and Corps. An emerging phenomenon at a global level in the field of jihadism, which often begins with adolescent curiosity – in this case about religion – and the desire at those ages to become leaders. And social networks are the best breeding ground.
The General Information Commissioner’s Office has confirmed that jihadist indoctrination that historically took place physically in religious centers, schools or in one’s own home has moved to the digital environment. It is nothing new that the adolescent group has always been a priority for recruiters from organizations such as the Islamic State or Al Quaeda. However, now the trend speaks of self-indoctrination. The figure of a leader is not necessary, a role model so necessary at those early ages. All you need is a phone. And since it is “a much more internal process,” as National Police sources define, the threat worsens because it is “much more complicated to detect.” In fact, they claim that in recent investigations the family was completely unaware of what the minor was up to.
The security forces assure that it is impossible to draw a common profile on minors trapped by jihadism. If you look at recent history you find: young Muslims, but also adolescent converts who grew up in Christian environments; minors mired in academic failure and even brilliant students; third generation immigrants or kids with eight Spanish surnames. Everything from children who have grown up on the brink of social exclusion to those who have grown up in wealthy families.
Despite this heterogeneity of profiles, the Information Headquarters of the Civil Guard do detail some common elements that usually unite them: a lack of culture in religion, their high cognitive abilities, the normalization of violence, little maturity and very unpredictable in their answers.
In general, they come to jihadist propaganda – which has caused the threat to be decentralized throughout all territories – quite casually, motivated by a query on social networks to satisfy their curiosity. From there, the algorithms, which offer content based on previous searches, do their thing. It is no longer necessary to go to the so-called deep web, terrorist content, as police sources warn, is on Telegram, TikTok or Instagram channels.
“At these ages, highly impressionable, adolescents want to be relevant, and at a time when their social life is on the networks, that is where they look for likes,” they explain to La Vanguardia from the intelligence service of the Armed Institute. Thanks to their high digital knowledge and powerful translators at the service of everyone, they are generating their own propaganda to gain likes. A few months ago, a structure that carried out its own video editing – short and with enormous visual power – was dismantled after translating content from the Islamic State into Spanish with the clear intention of targeting young people in Spain.
The authors were arrested, but the next problem – at the investigation level – comes with what to do with the dozens of teenagers who were present in that private group who for a time were recipients of audiovisual content, messages and terrorist slogans. Are they victims or has the seed intended by indoctrination been able to germinate in their heads? The actions coordinated by the Juvenile Prosecutor’s Office of the National Court now move along that fine line. The great concern, according to sources from the public ministry, is that the radicalization processes suffered by minors are much faster than in adults.
The minors themselves “feed off each other” and, as such, know which are the best platforms. Not only on social networks. Two minors arrested at the end of November were preaching jihadism on video game platforms. These digital natives – aged 15 and 16 – went in a very short period of self-indoctrination to carrying out “an activity of collaboration with the terrorist strategy” through gaming platforms in which they spread propaganda, going so far as to create their own embellished channels. with logos of the Islamic State. They went so far as to spread the oath of fidelity sworn by the perpetrator of the Brussels attack on October 16, in which two Swedish citizens were murdered.
For the moment, as concluded by both police forces, there is no “serious risk” that they will turn to terrorist action, despite the unpredictable nature of this threat, which is expected to continue increasing throughout this year. There is little precedent in Europe for attacks committed by minors. Two of the attackers on 17-A were not even 18 years old. Nor have they detected that minors are expressing their willingness to move to areas that are being taken over by organizations such as the Sahel.
