Parents warned extremist groups are targeting a growing number of kids online across Prairies

WARNING: This story contains references to extreme violence, suicide and self-harm. 

Violent extremist groups are grooming, recruiting and radicalizing a growing number of children and teenagers across the Prairies, police and researchers say.

They’re using social media platforms and popular online video games to connect, coerce and extort victims to harm themselves, kill people and animals, or commit school shootings.

“It’s to some real staggering degrees, where they are actually planning attacks,” said Const. Andrea Lefort, a terrorism and extremism specialist with the Winnipeg Police Service.

She said the manipulation happening online is leading to a higher risk of real-world violence, with a growing number of cases being referred to a non-profit organization that helps kids who’ve been exploited.

“I am expecting these cases to increase,” Lefort said. “I don’t think we are at the pinnacle of them.”

Michael King, deputy executive director of the Alberta-based Organization for the Prevention of Violence, said there has been “an exponential” increase in cases referred to their psychosocial intervention program, Evolve, over the past three years.

“And these are kids that at some point were contemplating or have flirted with the idea of engaging in violence off-line,” he said in an interview from Calgary.

King named popular online video game platform Roblox, along with another game — Minecraft — and messaging apps Discord and Telegram, along with other social platforms, as online spaces where these groups are targeting kids.

King, and police officers who specialize in counterterrorism, warn the victimization taking place online is leading to a higher risk of violence off-line.

“These are a collection of communities that really kind of glorify and value some of the worst types of behaviour possible,” he said.

Many are part of a virtual network known as the Community or the Com, King said. Some, including 764 and the Manic Murder Cult, or M.K.Y., have been added by the federal government to the Criminal Code list of terrorist entities.

Another group has a fascination with school shootings. King said it’s called the True Crime Community.

“So, they really kind of look up to and want to mimic other mass-casualty attackers, school shooters, people who engage in mass-casualty violence online,” he said.

His group, which isn’t affiliated with any law-enforcement agency, has one case worker located in Winnipeg and others across the Prairies.

The Evolve program worked on two cases involving online extremism in 2024, four last year and 10 so far this year.

King said cases can be referred to Evolve by schools, families, the courts and police.

“In many cases, it’s been the RCMP that’s kind of interdicted some type of crime going on,” he said. 

King said that could be discussions involving “a plot to engage in a school shooting,” and “maybe they’re acquiring weapons.”

He said when police get involved, “they tell families that they can seek support with the Evolve program, and many families choose to do that.”

Online extremism is an area of concern that’s taking up a significant amount of resources within the RCMP’s counterterrorism unit, known as the Integrated National Security Enforcement Team or INSET, Supt. Matt Johnson said.

“It crosses all boundaries. So, both geographic boundaries — this is an international problem, we are working daily with our international partners — and also within the crime-type space. It covers various types of criminality,” Johnson, the officer in charge of INSET within the Northwest Region, which includes Manitoba, said in an interview from Edmonton.

He said that makes enforcement of these groups challenging. 

Johnson said while the group names and the people who are a part of them can change, they share a common motivation — to disrupt the social order. They do that by putting victims through a cycle of abuse, he said.

“It’s part of that ideological underpinning of, if you want to destroy tomorrow, the best way to do that is to corrupt the youth of today,” Johnson said. “And what better way to do that [than] to victimize them, but then turn them into offenders as well.”

Winnipeg mom Kelsey Cram Woelcke is well aware of the dangers lurking online.

She doesn’t allow her two young sons to play Roblox and only allows them to play Minecraft off-line, while they’re in the living room, on the living room television.

“I know that there’s some different workarounds and stuff, but everything I have heard and read about these platforms is, unfortunately, they tend to be really reactive,” Cram Woelcke said. 

“Until I’m confident that they’re kind of taking steps ahead to prevent these things from happening, it’s something that I think we’ll steer away from.”    

The online gaming platform Roblox has previously introduced measures to protect younger users.

A spokesperson for Mojang, the company that made Minecraft, said in an emailed response to CBC News that “violent extremism has no place” in the game but “we recognize that bad actors may seek to exploit online gaming communities and we take that threat seriously.”

The spokesperson said their approach combines detection, moderation, enforcement, reporting and parental controls for families.

“Terrorism and violent extremism are society-wide challenges that no single company can tackle alone,” the spokesperson said.

Discord said it’s been “aggressively disrupting” 764 and other affiliated groups since 2021.

“We were among the first to share intelligence with law enforcement and alert other major online services,” a statement from a Discord spokesperson said, adding the messaging platform has removed thousands of servers, banned users and filed numerous reports with CyberTip and the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children.

‘The new predator playground’

Telegram said its terms of service “explicitly forbid acts 764 and groups like it take part in.”

The messaging service said it has been consistently removing 764-style groups and channels, and works with authorities to combat this kind of content.

“That is the scariest part,” Const. Lefort said. “All of the online spaces, that is the new predator playground.”

Winnipeg police previously launched a campaign called Safeguarding our Youth Online, and Lefort gives presentations on the dangers and warning signs parents and caregivers should watch out for in kids.

“I don’t think we can arrest our way out of this problem,” she said. “It’s a global problem, and it’s in all of the online spaces.”

Lefort said signs to watch out for include secrecy about online activity, withdrawal from friends or family, obsessive time spent online, unexplained injuries or markings, distress linked to messages, gaming or social media, and a sudden fascination with violence or harmful content.

“There is often an element of animal cruelty and animal abuse in many of these groups,” she said, adding an injured pet can also be a warning sign to watch out for.

Someone concerned about a child can call Winnipeg police, RCMP or make a report through cybertip.ca.

If you or someone you know is struggling, here’s where to look for help: