Hate groups and terrorist organizations are increasingly exploiting popular online games and chat platforms, including Roblox, Minecraft, and Discord, to groom and recruit children, The New York Times reported on Wednesday, citing counterterrorism researchers and UN-linked investigators tracking emerging radicalization trends.
Children now account for 42% of terrorism-related investigations across Europe and North America, a threefold rise since 2021, according to the UN Counter-Terrorism Committee Executive Directorate, while European services report that 20% to 30% of counterterrorism workload involves minors as young as 12 and 13.
“Extremists are able to create these games themselves, and if they make it something children are interested in, they can get a certain profile of child to join,” Jean Slater, who researches violent extremist movements, told the NYT.
“People just assume regulators have taken care of this, because there’s no way a platform would allow an adult to talk to a 9-year-old.”
Analysts believe extremist recruiters are leveraging the social dynamics of gaming, private servers, voice chat, and “friend” networks to identify vulnerable minors and build trust before moving conversations to less-moderated spaces.
Researchers have documented user-created environments inside Minecraft and Roblox that simulate real-world attacks and glorify terrorist violence, including recreations of the 2019 Christchurch mosque shootings in New Zealand, in which 51 people were murdered.
Investigators described “funnel strategies” that begin on mainstream platforms such as TikTok and X, then migrate children into closed groups on Discord or Telegram where enforcement is weaker, and ideologies are reinforced through memes, gamified missions, and peer validation.
Proceedings involving minors are often sealed, limiting public insight into how children are radicalized and which platforms played a role.
Children recruited by terror groups through online forums
Still, recent cases in Europe have highlighted how quickly online contacts can escalate into plots and planning.
In Britain, a 15-year-old girl was arrested on terrorism allegations after investigators said she had downloaded bomb-making guidance and posted threats online.
Similarly, in Estonia, authorities previously identified a 13-year-old boy as a leader in a self-styled neo-Nazi network operating through encrypted channels, researchers say.
Roblox and Microsoft, which owns Minecraft, say they prohibit extremist content and rely on tools such as proactive detection, moderation teams, reporting functions, and parental controls, while acknowledging the difficulty of policing private servers and fast-changing communities.
Counterterrorism experts say the speed of online recruitment is outpacing government response, as some minors shift between ideologies, from white supremacism to jihadist content.
“We can’t always put our finger on why there seems to be a turning point,” Thomas Renard, director of the International Center for Counter-Terrorism, told the NYT.
“Part of it is a bit of a snowball effect. Perhaps what is happening is we are now confronted with several things that come together quite nicely: the first digital generation, young people who grew up with smartphones in their hands, and parents who were quite permissive.”