No longer a child, but not yet an adult: young people are in an exciting phase. They are forming their identity and opinions, looking for their place in the world and people they feel comfortable with. They ask a lot of questions, are curious and open to many things. This opens up opportunities for new ideas – but can also be a gateway for extremist world views.
Extremism comes in many forms – be it right-wing or left-wing extremism, religious extremism or in the form of conspiracy myths. What all these forms have in common is that they work with simple but misleading answers that can only be exposed as false at second glance, that they present people with supposed scapegoats for every problem and that they stir up hatred.
Extremists try to reach young people via online channels with highly simplified content and short statements. They rely on current online trends such as entertaining videos and images, post memes and seemingly funny pictures or spread false reports to spread their messages in an inconspicuous and memorable way. They are active on all major networks – be it YouTube, WhatsApp or Facebook.
TikTok in particular is a preferred medium. It is used by more than half of all 12 to 19-year-olds and offers an enormous reach thanks to its algorithm. By posting catchy and seemingly harmless clips, extremists ensure that their content is flushed into many channels by the algorithm – and then benefit from the fact that content on the network spreads like snowballs as soon as users interact with it. The young people who watch and share the clips are often unaware at first that they are supporting extremist ideas because the messages are initially very hidden and subtly incorporated into seemingly harmless songs or clips. These videos are often shared before young people realize their problematic origin.
Networks such as Discord, which are actually used for gaming, are also often used by extremists. They join gaming groups here, establish contact via a shared game and then spread their ideology. To do this, they often use images or well-known stories from games to reinterpret them for their own message. For young people, the line between the actual game and the extremist message can quickly become blurred.
Right-wing extremists and Islamists are particularly active on the internet. If their propaganda is clearly recognizable, it can usually be quickly deleted by the platform operators. This is why extremists like to switch to lesser-known and less strictly controlled online services such as the Russian platform vk.com after their first contact. A large part of the communication is not even visible to the public, but takes place in closed groups, e.g. on Telegram or Facebook. Young people who have been contacted via public portals are lured there – and that’s where they encounter the real, sometimes brutal or disturbing propaganda.
Both right-wing extremists and Islamists like to see themselves as victims. They pretend to be oppressed by their own or other states. Right-wing extremists in Germany often speak of the so-called “lying press”. They accuse the media of being controlled by the government, which is why extreme right-wing opinions have no voice. Both groups also express criticism of capitalism. This is particularly dangerous. Because aspects of the criticism are entirely justified and are shared by many young people. Extremists use this to win them over to their cause. Recently, anti-Semitic (i.e. anti-Jewish) conspiracy myths have increasingly been spread again from both camps. These conspiracy myths are now also being used by musicians who are popular with young people – for example in some songs by the German rapper Kollegah.
It is therefore particularly important that you talk to your child about what is on their mind. Which topics are particularly hotly debated among friends? What images and videos do they look at and share? Also address the goals that certain groups pursue when they post content with extreme political statements online.
Make your child aware that anyone can express their opinion online – even people with bad intentions. That’s why you can’t just trust all content, you have to question it. On knowyourmeme.com, you can look up well-known memes including their history (unfortunately, the site is only available in English). Mimikama.at is a good place to check the veracity of messages from social networks such as Facebook.
If you or your child come across obviously extremist content, you can report it directly to the platform operators. With large services such as Facebook and YouTube, this can be done with just a few clicks. In general, you can also use the Internet Complaint Center. In particularly serious cases, it may make sense to contact the police directly. In most federal states, this can now be done online via a so-called Internet watch.
You should also use technical parental control settings. These can help to restrict, block or mute contact from strangers. Although they do not offer complete protection against extremist content, they can provide additional protection for your child. A helpful platform for this is medien-kindersicher.de, which offers instructions for parental control settings specifically for various networks, including Discord.
There are many good offers to strengthen young people against extremism:
