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Chapter 1: What warning did Europol issue regarding online networks?
First this morning, Europol has warned that an online network, mainly comprised of children, poses an extremely serious threat to both young people and society. The EU law enforcement agency is working alongside police forces, including on Garda Síochána, to investigate the comm.
In a report, Europol says the network is engaged in child sexual exploitation, cyber attacks, extortion, assault, rape, murder and violent extremism. And they found that juveniles have been encouraged to inflict violence on themselves and others. To discuss this, I'm joined by Mick Moran, CEO of the Irish Internet Hotline. and by Alwyn Moran, Child Neurological Development Therapist.
Good morning to you both. Mick, I might start with you. Could you just explain to us the Calm? It's not a platform. It's an online communication network. How does it work?
No, the Calm is just a group of youngfellas, really, or young people who get together and just turn into a kind of an online Fagans community. And they can be on any platform. They can be meeting anywhere, wherever groups can be formed, you know, the likes of Discord, Zap, whatever, these type of groups. And they come together and they get into just all sorts of things.
of development that will then continue on and escalate often very quickly and it can be as harm apparently harmless as just sharing you know the most egregious content they can find online with each other into the group or it can then escalate into um the sexual extortion of other
the trapping of them in a power humiliation, isolation, harm dynamic that then results in acts being carried out in the real world. The more bizarre, the more egregious, the more outrageous, the better. And they are shared back into the group again using live stream capabilities of, again, the different platforms, you know.
What's the motivation? Why are young people encouraging each other to do these things?
For the crack is the simple answer. And then it depends on who is leading the group. Then how... how psychopathic is that person and how far it goes. And of course, group dynamics means that if you're delivering into the group the most outrageous material or the most outrageous act in the real world, then you gain kudos and status within the group.
By the sound of it, it's decentralised. It can occur on different platforms. It must be very difficult for the authorities to engage with or to deal with.
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Chapter 2: How is the online communication network structured?
you know they're going they're going to miss the points there has to be a kind of a task force approach to it really you know we often talk to young people uh if they're going online about or even in real life uh about stranger danger but this is slightly different this is people getting into trouble or getting into harm's way um through their their peers yes they they
together and come together in a con group generally are young lads that are maybe playing games together or young people who are playing game who are gaming together they they form this group they share you know gore uh horror um you know uh taboo subjects like they'll go after you know nazi memorabilia stuff like that they'll do all that sort of stuff and then
you know, obviously they engage in kind of manosphere style activity, stuff like misogyny and whatever. And then they hang out in groups, say, that are dedicated to young people who are feeling a bit isolated or a bit down in themselves or maybe have sexuality issues or who are seeking help online. They'll offer to help
And subsequently, then they'll engage in sexual extortion activity with them, which once they've closed that trap, now they have control of the kid. I mean, you've had me on before, David, talking about sexual extortion and how it can be for financial motivation. It can be for extra content where a child is encouraged to produce new and newer and newer and newer material.
or to engage in sex acts live on the camera. And this is just another motivation where that sexual extortion is another thing to watch out for. Because once the child is controlled, once they're controlled, once they're caught in that trap, then they'll do anything they possibly can to comply in order that their intimate images are not shared with family or friends.
OK, stay with us, Mick, if you will. I'm joined as well, as I say, by Alwyn Moore, a child neurological development therapist. Alwyn, good morning to you. Europol says these networks are largely made up of children aged between 8 and 17. What's the significance of that for you?
Yeah, that's really worrying, actually, because that age group are particularly vulnerable in terms of what's happening in their brain at that time. So that kind of tween to teen is another growth spurt, actually, in the brain where kids become wired to kind of seek and validate peer approval much more than parental approval.
So it makes their peer to peer experiences much more of an emphasis in their life than, say, you know, kind of like younger or even older kind of kids. The problem with that is that I suppose their social brain is super hypersensitive to that peer acceptance. They're, as I said, neurobiologically wired to feel this, but they also feel it's intensely rewarding to be part of a group.
And exclusion, as Mick was saying there, it feels like physical pain for them. So that's how the coercion works, really. you know, it's through the terror of losing their peer status. But their brain just isn't wired to be able to make a rational thought.
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