For the first time, Counter Terrorism Policing, MI5 and the National Crime Agency have issued a joint public warning urging parents to take action to keep children safe online during the summer break.
The unprecedented message follows mounting concern that online offenders will exploit school holidays to expose children and young people to extreme and harmful content, while parental oversight is diminished.
Deputy Assistant Commissioner Vicki Evans, Counter Terrorism Policing’s senior national coordinator for Prevent and Pursue, said: “We want parents to empower their children to know what to do if they come across inappropriate content online. If you haven’t already, please start the conversation about online safety as soon as possible.”
The agencies are reporting increasing cases where children become desensitised to disturbing material such as terrorist propaganda, sadistic violence, sexual abuse, and suicide-related content. The National Crime Agency warns that teenage boys are being targeted by international online gangs across gaming platforms, messaging apps and forums.
Alexander Murray, the NCA’s director of threat leadership, said: “There is a fast-growing threat from sadistic and violent online gangs, made up predominantly of teenage boys, dedicated to inflicting harm and committing a range of criminality including fraud, cyber, child sexual abuse, violence and extremism.”
MI5 Director General Sir Ken McCallum said the service continues to see troubling levels of youth involvement in terrorism. “In 2024 I said that 13% of all those investigated by MI5 for involvement in terrorism were under 18. That deeply concerning presence of young people in our casework continues to this day.”
Of the 219 terrorism-related arrests in 2023, 42 were of individuals aged 17 or under. Though this figure slightly decreased to 39 in 2024, officials say the overall threat landscape remains acute.
Deputy Assistant Commissioner Evans added: “None of my colleagues started working in counter terrorism thinking they would be investigating and arresting children as young as 12 for terrorism offences. Unfortunately, every year, we arrest children for terrorism offences, which tend to come about after they are led down the wrong path by extremists.”
The agencies also pointed to a “societal tipping point” in online harms, noting that harmful networks and ideologies are increasingly “gamified” and globalised.
A new joint taskforce between the NCA and CTP is being established to better share intelligence and investigate criminally motivated networks (COM networks), which officials say are often linked to escalating violence in communities.
Parents are encouraged to use practical resources such as those provided by Internet Matters, activate parental controls, and report harmful content at gov.uk/report-terrorism. For concerns about radicalisation, support is available via the ACT Early programme.
