Children as young as 12 are becoming involved in attacks linked to online communities that glorify mass shootings, celebrate violence and exploit vulnerable young people, according to an assessment by The Soufan Center, which warns that youth involvement in violent extremism and extreme violence is increasing worldwide. The threat, once associated more closely with established ideological movements, is now being driven by loosely networked digital communities in which radicalisation can occur within days or even hours.
The assessment identifies two overlapping networks as particular concerns: the Community (COM), which includes nihilistic violent extremist groups, and the True Crime Community (TCC), whose members glorify previous mass shooters and school attackers. Although the average age of perpetrators across these networks ranges from 11 to 22, the report highlights a recent increase in TCC attackers and plotters under 15. Between May and October 2026, a series of attacks and attempted attacks across several countries involved adolescents aged between 12 and 15.
The shift is linked to online environments in which young people encounter and combine material from different extremist and violent subcultures. Rather than adhering to a single, coherent ideology, participants draw selectively on right-wing extremism, neo-Nazism, antisemitic conspiracies, pro-Islamic State ideas, misogyny, nihilism, anti-LGBT themes and other forms of hatred. This process has been described by Daveed Gartenstein-Ross as “fringe fluidity” and by Bruce Hoffman as “ideological convergence”. Algorithms, social media and what the assessment describes as the addictive qualities of gaming can accelerate exposure and engagement, compressing a process that previously took months into days or hours.
Within the COM network, nihilistic violent extremist groups promote violence and chaos for their own sake, often as a means of obtaining status and recognition. Among the most notorious groups are 764, Maniac Murder Cult and No Lives Matter. These networks groom children and adolescents for self-harm, cybercrime, child sexual exploitation and violence against other people and animals. The assessment says COM operates internationally and that 764 has exploited victims as young as eight.
The True Crime Community operates through a related but distinct culture of fascination with previous mass shootings and school attacks. Members may adopt the clothing and symbols associated with earlier perpetrators or produce material celebrating them. Violent participants encourage one another to emulate their idols, including through attacks staged and publicised in a memetic fashion. Originating in the United States, the TCC has expanded through online communities into countries across multiple continents.
Indonesia provides an indication of the network’s reach. Densus 88, the country’s counter-terrorism police unit, identified 70 children linked to the TCC across 18 provinces, according to Ami Prindani, Deputy Head of Densus 88, and Khiorul Annam, a PhD candidate at the Indonesian International Islamic University. Twenty of those children were at various stages of planning attacks. Unlike recruitment by Islamist and right-wing extremist groups a decade ago, the report says, recruitment into COM and TCC networks takes place entirely online.
Platforms and services including TikTok, Telegram, X, Reddit and Instagram, alongside forums such as Watch People Die and gaming environments including Roblox, Discord, Gorebox and Minecraft, can provide channels through which these networks identify, target, recruit, groom and exploit young audiences. The assessment says the scale of the threat is comparable in reach to the Islamic State at its height, although the networks involved differ in their structure and ideological orientation.
The geographical spread is substantial. The American University PERIL Lab’s NVE Tracker estimates 265 incidents worldwide, while the COM network operates in around 31 countries. The FBI has approximately 250 COM cases under investigation, with open investigations in all 50 US states and across all 56 FBI field offices. FBI Director Kash Patel said NVE cases increased by 300 per cent in 2025 compared with 2024. As of September 2026, the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children had logged more than 3,000 incident reports, according to Kathryn Rifenbark, director of its CyberTipline.
TCC-linked incidents have been reported across North America, South America, Southeast Asia, Africa, Australia, New Zealand and Europe. The assessment’s most pressing concern, however, is the declining age of some perpetrators and the vulnerability of their victims. Research by Marc-Andre Argentino and Angus Lindsay found that between 2020 and 2026, the median age of COM perpetrators ranged from 18 to 22, while the median age of victims ranged from 11 to 16. A study of the TCC by Peter Smith, Cat Cadenhead and Clara Broekhaert estimated the median age of offenders at 17.
Recent cases illustrate the younger age profile. Two youths aged 14 and 15 carried out shootings at San Jose National High School in Tacloban, the Philippines. An attacker aged 14 struck Debsirin Nonthamburi School in Thailand, while another 14-year-old carried out an attack at Joseph-Lakanal Middle School in Aubagne, France. A 13-year-old was responsible for a shooting at Instiuto Sao Jose in Brazil. In South Africa, a 15-year-old stabbed a six-year-old at an elementary school in Umhlali, while a 12-year-old attempted to stab his technology teacher in San Vito, Italy.
The Soufan Center argues that the combination of young perpetrators, young victims and cross-border online networks requires a response extending beyond conventional security measures. Cynthia Miller-Idriss has advocated treating violent extremism and extreme violence “like a virus”. Because so many people involved are minors, the assessment calls for a public health approach built around early identification, prevention and coordinated intervention.
That approach would require national and international cooperation to train parents, teachers, school counsellors, juvenile court judges, child psychologists, religious clergy, social workers, paediatricians, law enforcement officers and young people themselves to recognise warning signs and vulnerabilities. Practices would need to be adapted to different national and cultural contexts rather than transferred wholesale between countries. The assessment also calls for intelligence-sharing initiatives to expand into South America, Africa and Southeast Asia, alongside greater cooperation between social media and gaming companies, governments and law enforcement agencies over potential and actual threats
