Pulling back the curtain on online grooming for child recruitment

Quiz time: In which movie does an ordinary man, using tricks and schemes to pose as an all-powerful wizard, fruitlessly warn a young girl and her pals to, “Pay no attention to that man behind the curtain.”

Correct Answer: The Wizard of Oz — which also happens to be one of our all-time favorite childhood movies.

In our previous post, we discussed the use of social media as a new gateway to child recruitment. Inspired by Dorothy pulling back the curtain to reveal the truth about the “wizard,” here we try to shed some light on how armed groups use online grooming for child recruitment.

What is actually behind the curtain?

Counterterrorism experts in the US have explained that some armed groups use cyber grooming tactics like posting propaganda videos on YouTube and using online chat rooms, vanishing websites, and cellphone-based texts to promote radical beliefs to groom children. These can be children living anywhere in the world, close or far away from the battlefield, as long as they have internet access.

Several high-profile cases have hit mainstream media in recent years, showing how armed groups have used online communications to radicalize children in the US, Canada and Europe. In one stunning case, dozens of Somali American adolescent boys and young men left their homes in Minneapolis for Somalia between to join al-Shabaab, the militant Islamist group in Somalia associated with Al-Qaeda. Several of the boys later died in Somalia.

How does it happen?

It turns out that in the Minneapolis case, like many others, the armed group blended online and in-person grooming tactics. Here is a description of how this radicalization can happen:

First, a local recruiter — or middleman —befriends potential recruits in face-to-face interactions and personally guides them towards the armed group’s propaganda materials on the internet.

Once children arrive at an online site, they find materials carefully crafted to appeal to them, exploit their vulnerabilities and manipulate their beliefs. For example, some armed groups create social media posts that use colloquial languageand images and videos to attract young people.

Of course, children do not become radicalized overnight. The radicalization process tends to be gradual, happening over time until the child is deeply enmeshed with the group’s philosophy. At that point, armed group may provide funds, airline tickets and/or other logistics to physically get the child into their area of operation.

What about texting?

Armed groups also use texting and other online messaging platforms as grooming tools. For example, the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria’s (ISIS) has used text, audio and video messages to build relationships with children and lure them into joining. Through these messages ISIS recruiters init

iate feelings of trust, attachment and cooperation in the children and isolate them from their families. Below is an excerpt from transcript of a an ISIS recruiter to a child who had escaped, which illustrates manipulation techniques used by recruiters, (as documented in a paper by ICCT).

Don’t let [your father] hear you and delete the recording and don’t let your mother... I swear to god that it is heaven here. You understand!… Come back here, live with your brothers and become a jihadi for the sake of god…Come back I swear to god I missed you man. COME BACK MY BROTHER! Come back and we would make you Kabsa [chicken rice meal] god willing. And we will celebrate your return!

After using online grooming to create a relationship with a child, recruiters tend to move to real-world interactions, such as giving the child attention, gifts, food, and money. (ICCT research paper)

What next?

In “The Wizard of Oz,” Dorothy’s journey teaches us the importance of pursuing the truth, no matter how difficult the journey may be. Inspired by this lesson, we have attempted to shed light on the issue of online grooming for child recruitment by pulling back the curtain and revealing some of the tactics and techniques used by armed groups.

However, we also recognize that there is still a lot that we don't know, such as which armed groups are using online grooming for recruitment and to what extent, how they are gaining access to children, and what methods they are using to groom them.

To stop this practice, we need more information, and need to become more knowledgeable on approaches and techniques to counter online grooming for child recruitment. This won’t be easy, but, as Glinda, the good witch, encouragingly told Dorothy, “You’ve always had the power my dear, you just had to learn it.”

Let us know what else you think is needed to end online grooming for child recruitment.