The National British Crime Agency has felt an “unprecedented risk” for young groups of online groups who encourage teenagers to share sadistic and misogynist material and forcing others in sexual abuse, self -harm or violence.
The agency, which is responsible for the struggle with a serious crime and organized in Great Britain, declared Tuesday in an annual evaluation of the crime trends that the reports of accidents relating to the threat of online groups have increased by six times between 2022 and 2024 in Great Britain and warned of a significant number of victims that were treated or blackmail.
“Young people are attracted to these sadistic and violent online bands, where they are collaborating on a large scale to inflict or incite others to commit serious damage,” said Graeme Biggar, general manager of the agency, in a note.
He added: “These groups do not hide on the dark network, they exist in the same online world and the platforms that young people use daily” and have noticed that girls were “treated to injure themselves and in some cases, even encouraged to try suicide”.
The groups reached young people using game platforms such as Roblox and messaging apps such as Discord and Telegram.
The national strategic evaluation of the 2024 agency said that while adults were involved in these communities or networks, it was particularly worried about teenage boys who often shared sadistic and misogynist material and aimed at 11 -year -old girls.
Describe “Com” as networks, the forums have become vehicles for sharing images of extreme violence, sexual abuse for minors. They are also used to apply the “extreme coercion” to manipulate young people in damaging or abusing themselves, their brothers or pets, said the agency.
“Members of the” com “networks are usually young people who are motivated by status, power, control, misogyny, sexual gratification or obsession with extreme or violent material”, said the relationship, which added that the emergence of these types of online groups “are certainly causing some individuals, in particular some people, young people, to develop a dangerous propensity for extreme violence.”
He added that networks generally attract young males who promote nihilistic opinions, which “try to obtain a status with other users by committing or encouraging harmful acts in a broad spectrum of offensive”.
Users in Great Britain and other western countries “had exchanged millions of online messages relating to sexual and physical abuse,” he observed.
The criminal agency gave the example of Cameron Finnigan, a British teenager who was sentenced to prison in January after being part of an online satanist group who blackmailing on other children in filming or lively self -harm, violence and sexual abuse. Finnigan, 19, used the Telegram app to encourage contacts to commit murder and suicide.
In his declaration, Biggar said that the police were collaborating with technological companies and psychologists to better understand the behavior of young people, but added that he encouraged parents “to have regular conversations with his son on what they do online”.
Jess Phillips, a government minister who has the responsibility of facing violence against women and girls, described the scale of the abuses outlined in the relationship as “absolutely horrible” and has also urged open conversations within families.
“My message to technological companies is simple: this too is your responsibility,” he added. “You must make sure your platforms are safe for children, so you can protect the most vulnerable predators and put the bars behind.”
The last survey of the agency has focused heavily on the use of technology and online platforms in crimes including fraud, extremism and sexual abuse.
Citing the statistics of the internet Watch Foundation, a non-profit organization, said that 291,273 web pages had contained indecent images of children in 2024, with a 6 % increase since 2023