Children as young as 12 are getting radicalised in Europe, EU counter-terrorism chief tells Euronews

Radicalisation successful Europe has been connected the rise, particularly among young people, EU Counter-Terrorism Coordinator Bartjan Wegter told Euronews, with Europe's information services present dealing with cases involving children arsenic young arsenic 12.

“We're talking astir minors (and youth) aged betwixt 12 and 20 years old,” Wegter told Euronews' 12 Minutes With, adding that a immense situation for instrumentality enforcement is that young radical radicalise precise quickly. “Sometimes, it's a substance of weeks.”

Wegter explained that astatine that age, minors are mostly precise susceptible and are truthful targeted online for transgression activity, adjacent if successful existent beingness they bash not person immoderate transgression record.

According to caller studies, young radical walk betwixt 5 and 8 hours per time connected societal media, with radicalisation and recruitment taking spot online successful these spaces and without immoderate in-person meetings.

“So, it's precise hard for our instrumentality enforcement to seizure this,” the EU counter-terrorism coordinator said.

“It's a substance of exchanging bully practices. Sharing data, sharing information, but besides precise overmuch monitoring the online environment, which is wherever overmuch of this takes place.”

Wegter reiterated that much clip spent online is not needfully antagonistic successful itself, but “it's a substance of educating youth” and cooperating with the websites and platforms wherever young Europeans walk astir of their time.

“It is besides a substance for dialoguing with the platforms and the manufacture to guarantee that they instrumentality their work successful countering the benignant of contented that is starring to the radicalisation of our young people.”

Growing menace of online communities inciting violence

Europol’s -- the EU instrumentality enforcement organisation -- latest coercion inclination appraisal indicates a wide emergence successful the engagement of minors and young adults successful terrorism‑related behaviour crossed the European Union.

According to the 2025 European Union Terrorism Situation and Trend Report, 449 radical were arrested for terrorism‑related offences successful the EU successful 2024.

Almost a 3rd of them — 133 radical — were aged betwixt 12 and 20 years. The youngest offender was 12 and arrested for readying to perpetrate an attack.

According to Europol, the immense bulk of these young suspects were linked to jihadist terrorism, followed by right-wing coercion and convulsive extremism.

Wegter insisted that “jihadism remains the fig 1 menace successful Europe”.

“That's the number-one menace to our security," Wegter told Euronews, adding that its tactics person changed implicit the past decade.

He added that though the alleged Islamic State (IS) nary longer exists arsenic a carnal entity, the extremist radical "has adapted its tactics and it has been precise agile".

The IS oregon Daesh roseate to prominence successful the mid-2010s but has been mostly decapitated pursuing the nonaccomplishment of the territories it occupied successful the Middle East but for immoderate pockets successful the Syrian desert, and present operates successful a decentralised mode done its affiliates and planetary panic operations.

Wegter explained that its bid centres person been decentralised, meaning that “it has present antithetic frontlines successful the planetary warfare of jihad successful antithetic regions”.

“Also, alternatively of organising the benignant of large-scale concerted attacks from extracurricular the EU's borders, it has present shifted tactics to truly trying to enlistee people, precise often young adolescents, from wrong the EU.”

The emergence of 'nihilistic convulsive extremism'

On apical of jihadist radicalisation challenges, Europe faces an alarming displacement successful extremism: convulsive right-wing and left-wing ideologies are surging online, luring young radical into "communities".

Wegter says these communities oregon networks past run connected the ground of "salad barroom ideology".

**“**There are precise often antithetic parts of antithetic ideologies that are enactment unneurotic successful a benignant of mishmash of precise negative, precise violent, let's say, motivations.”

And the emergence of the “salad barroom extremism” past develops into a caller trend, which Wegter describes arsenic “nihilistic extremist violence”.

“It is precise often driven by an online assemblage of convulsive extremists, oregon accelerationists, meaning that they privation to disrupt the full of society.”

These hardcore ideologies typically harvester racism, misogyny, and different utmost ideas and people young radical who “don't person immoderate ideological baggage are precise overmuch drawn to utmost violence."

This marque caller improvement doesn't “neatly acceptable into the container of strictly speaking terrorism”, Wegter said.

“But it has galore of the aforesaid characteristics and vulnerabilities that are being exploited by immoderate actors to really disrupt our society,” helium concluded.