In a recent police operation, anti-terrorist investigators patrolling social networks detected several profiles professing jihadism: by justifying violence in defense of Islam or glorifying armed groups. The surprise - although it is becoming more and more common - came when, once the owners of these 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 process of radicalization among "digital natives", which makes the forces and bodies go wild of security. An emerging phenomenon on a global scale in the field of jihadism, which often begins with adolescent curiosity – in this case for religion – and the desire at these ages to become references. And social networks are the best breeding ground.
The General Information Commissioner has confirmed that the jihadist indoctrination that historically took place physically in religious centers, schools or at home has moved to the digital environment. It is nothing new that the group of teenagers has always been a priority for recruiters of organizations such as the Islamic State or Al-Qaida. However, the trend now speaks of self-indoctrination. There is no need for the figure of a leader, a role model so necessary at those early ages. A phone is enough. And since it is "a much more internal process", as defined by sources from the National Police, the threat is aggravated, because it is "much more complicated to detect". In fact, they say that in recent investigations the family was completely unaware of what the minor had gotten himself into.
The security forces assure that it is impossible to trace a common profile of the minors caught by jihadism. If they look at recent history, they find young Muslims, but also teenage converts who grew up in Christian environments, minors who failed at school and even brilliant students, third-generation immigrants or young people with eight Spanish surnames. Everything, from children who have grown up on the verge of social exclusion to those who have done so in the bosom of wealthy families.
Despite this heterogeneity of profiles, the information department of the Civil Guard does detail some elements in common that usually unite them: an inculturation due to religion, their high cognitive abilities, the normalization of violence, lack of maturity and a lot unpredictable in their responses.
In general, they arrive at jihadist propaganda – which has caused the threat to be decentralized across all territories – in a rather casual way, moved by some query on social networks to satisfy their curiosity. From here, the algorithms, which offer content based on previous searches, do their thing. It is no longer necessary to go to the so-called deep internet, terrorist content, as police sources warn, is on Telegram, TikTok or Instagram channels.
"At these highly influenceable ages, teenagers want to be relevant, and at a time when their social life is on the networks, that's where they look for likes", they explain to La Vanguardia from the intelligence service intelligence of the armed institute. Thanks to their high digital knowledge and the powerful translators at the service of all, they are generating their own propaganda to win likes. A few months ago, a structure that carried out its own editing of videos - short and with enormous visual power - was dismantled after translating Islamic State content into Spanish with the clear intention of targeting young people in Spain .
The perpetrators were arrested, but the next problem - in the field of investigation - is what to do with the dozens of teenagers who were present in that private group and who for a while were recipients of audiovisual content, messages and slogans terrorists Are they victims or has the seed that the indoctrination intended germinated in their heads? The actions coordinated by the Juvenile Prosecutor's Office of the National Court are now moving along this fine line. The great concern, according to sources from the public ministry, is that the radicalization processes that minors suffer from are much faster than in adults.
The minors "feed each other" and, as such, know which are the best platforms. Not only in social networks. Two minors arrested at the end of November preached jihadism on video game platforms. These digital natives – aged 15 and 16 – went from self-indoctrination in a very short period to carrying out "an activity of collaboration with the terrorist strategy" by means of game platforms in which they spread propaganda and reached to create their own channels adorned with Islamic State logos. They went so far as to spread the oath of allegiance taken by the perpetrator of the attack in Brussels on October 16, in which two Swedish citizens were killed.
At the moment, according to the conclusions of the two police forces, there is no "serious risk" that they will turn to terrorist action, despite the unpredictability of this threat, which they expect to continue to increase throughout this year. There are few precedents in Europe for attacks committed by minors. Two of the 17-A attackers did not reach the age of 18. Nor have they detected that minors are expressing their desire to move to areas that are being taken over by the organizations, such as the Sahel.
