Winnipeg police warn of extremist online groups targeting children

Winnipeg police are warning the public about online nihilistic violent extremist groups that are targeting children. Jon Hendricks reports.

Winnipeg police are warning parents about extremist online groups that are targeting youth, which they say have been observed locally.

During a Friday morning news conference, Const. Claude Chancy spoke about the threat of “nihilistic violent extremism” online and the efforts police are making to deal with the issue.

“Predators once had to enter public spaces to seek out potential victims, but with evolving technology and social platforms, those behaviours have increasingly moved to online environments,” Chancy said. “Today, offenders are actively infiltrating online platforms children use daily.”

Chancy named several groups that operate under labels, including The Com, 764, MKY and The True Crime Community, which he said are deliberately targeting vulnerable children and teens on multiple platforms. The federal government has designated 764 as a terrorist organization.

“Their stated objective is not ideological change, but the destruction of society,” he said.

Roblox, Snapchat, Twitch

Chancy said they are operating on multiple forms, such as Roblox, Minecraft servers, Snapchat, Twitch and others, looking for children posting about their insecurities, such as body image or mental health. The predators will then exploit these vulnerabilities by lying about shared experiences to build trust, then gradually introduce victims to increasingly violent and disturbing material.

Chancy said the predators would expose children to animal torture, child sexual abuse material and extreme gore to desensitize their victims.

“Predators then move the victims to a private space, where the abuse escalates to blackmail,” he said.

Chancy said the victims are coerced into harmful acts against themselves, their siblings or their pets, sometimes while being forced to live-stream it.

“Extortion here is not used for financial gain; it is a tool used to extract more material and to ultimately push victims to taking their own lives, or the lives of others,” he said.

‘A global problem’

Constable Andrea Lefort with the police service’s community relations division said police have received reports of similar incidents, but did not provide details, saying investigations are still ongoing.

“This is a global problem,” she said. “It’s impacting everybody globally, and many of the investigations are trans-national.”

Parents and caregivers should be on the lookout for signs of self-mutilation, sudden withdrawal from family or friends, secretive behaviour around devices and changes in mood, language or expressed worldview among their children.

Chancy said parents who know of a child being victimized or at the risk of being victimized should call police at 204-986-6222 or report it to Cybertip.ca.