How terrorism is taking over the West: One in five British terror suspects are CHILDREN, with fanatics radicalised in just WEEKS thanks to AI propaganda
The United States and its allies launched their global war on terror in the wake of the September 11, 2001 attacks on the World Trade Center.
With the world still reeling and rescue operations at the site of the collapsed twin towers still ongoing, George W. Bush stood before the nation to deliver an historic address.
'Our enemy is a radical network of terrorists, and every government that supports them,' President Bush declared.
'Our war on terror begins with al Qaeda, but it does not end there. It will not end until every terrorist group of global reach has been found, stopped and defeated,' he said, telling Americans to expect 'a lengthy campaign unlike any other we have ever seen'.
Now, more than 23 years on from that fateful speech, this campaign still has no end in sight and the battlefield looks very different.
For years the US and its allies fought terror groups as though they were an adversarial state that could be defeated like any other army - with invasions, airstrikes and men on the ground.
But this conflict only served to fuel the expansion of terror networks which, thanks to the advancement of digital tools and advent of AI, are now so adept at cross-border communication and recruitment that no amount of bombs or bullets can stop them.
Today, individuals can be radicalised in a matter of weeks and are able to plan and launch terror attacks in total isolation without triggering suspicion.
What's more, the average age of terror suspects is declining rapidly. Now, one in five terror suspects in the UK are legally classified as children.
According to the Global Terrorism Index (GTI) - a comprehensive study by the Institute for Economics & Peace analysing the impact of terrorism on 163 countries - terror attacks jumped by 63% in the West from 2023-2024 and seven Western countries now rank among the top 50 nations worst affected by terrorism.
Propaganda photos released by ISIS-K in Afghanistan showing their fighters
The 14-year-old boy's lawyer said there was no evidence her client had viewed the ISIS videos and suggested they might have automatically been saved to his phone after they were sent to him
Children aged 11-15 now make up the largest proportion of referrals to the Government’s de-radicalisation Prevent programme (file image)
A new era of radicalisation
The process by which individuals become radicalised to the point where they are prepared to carry out a terror attack has undergone a seismic shift in the last two decades.
In 2002 - the year after the US launched the global war on terror - it took an average of 16 months from first exposure to extremist content for an individual to commit a terrorist act, according to the GTI's research.
By 2015, this timeline had shrunk by 40%, and today, radicalisation can occur in just a few weeks.
The shocking speed with which someone can now become exposed to radical ideologies, become indoctrinated and prepare a violent act makes it incredibly difficult for authorities to intervene.
This phenomenon is largely attributed to the ever-growing array of digital tools available to terrorist groups and the rise of artificial intelligence-powered propaganda.
Unlike traditional radicalisation methods, which relied on terror networks developing regular physical or telephone and email contact with their recruits, extremist groups can now operate almost entirely online.
End-to-end encryption (E2EE) messaging platforms such as Telegram, Rocket Chat and anonymous dark web forums mean that extremist networks can make contact with potential recruits and direct them to 'Darknet' sites.
These are internet networks that can only be accessed with specialised software, described by researchers as a 'virtual safe haven' for terrorists and potential recruits to access propaganda, instructions and tools to better plan and carry out attacks.
Meanwhile, terrorist groups are increasingly leveraging AI-generated content to automate and scale their propaganda operations, dramatically reducing the timeline for radicalisation and making the experience more immersive for their targets.
A 2021 report published by the UN Office of Counter Terrorism (UNCCT) found that extremist groups were harnessing AI-powered deepfake technology and AI-generated text and video content to distribute highly engaging propaganda.
Now, extremist groups are even said to be using automated AI chatbots, often within E2EE messaging platforms, to micro-target vulnerable individuals, creating fully personalised radicalisation programmes.
Islamic State Khorasan (ISIS-K), seen as one of the most capable terror groups, now harnesses these tools to produce propaganda in over 10 languages, including Pashto, Dari, Arabic, Urdu, Farsi, Uzbek, Tajik, English, Russian and Turkish, according to the GTI.
Rafaello Pantucci, former director of international security studies at the Royal United Services Institute (RUSI), described the E2EE platforms and the Darknet as 'the beating heart of the online terror threat' where recruits can become radicalised and access all the information to plan an attack without ever making direct contact with their recruiters.
The UNCCT's Malicious Use of AI report concludes that law enforcement agencies and terror groups are now locked in a digital arms race, with extremists adapting to evade surveillance tools designed to monitor and analyse radicalisation patterns online, even in encrypted networks.
The average age of people conducting terror attacks or who are arrested on terror charges has decreased significantly in recent years - particularly in Europe
Youth terror and the rise of 'lone wolf' attacks
The scope and scale of extremist groups' use of digital tools and AI to bolster their propaganda and recruitment efforts has given rise to a pair of extremely unsettling trends.
Firstly, the average age of people conducting terror attacks or who are arrested on terror charges has decreased significantly in recent years - particularly in Europe.
In 2024, nearly two-thirds of ISIS-linked arrests in Europe involved teenagers, according to GTI's research.
In the UK alone, one in five terror suspects is under 18 and one in five people arrested on terror charges in Europe is legally classified as a child.
These horrifying statistics tally with research conducted last year by Dr. Peter Neumann, head of the renowned International Centre for the Study of Radicalisation headquartered at King's College London.
Neumann recorded the age of almost 60 jihadist terror suspects arrested in Western Europe from October 2023 to June 2024, and found 64 percent were between 13 and 19 years old.
'For almost all of them, there was clear evidence that their radicalisation took place primarily or even exclusively online,' Neumann said.
'What was an exception ten years ago has now become the norm,' he added, declaring we are now living in the age of 'TikTok jihadists' - teenagers who become radicalised online and commit terror acts without any offline influence.
The last-minute cancellation of pop music megastar Taylor Swift's concerts in Vienna last year constitutes a clear example of the threat posed by teenage terrorists and online radicalisation patterns, Neumann said.
In that instance, a 15-year-old Syrian boy living in Frankfurt managed to radicalise a 19-year-old man living in Vienna after the pair met on a radical Islamist forum.
The pair exchanged messages in a private encrypted chat, and within weeks the 19-year-old ha recruited a 17-year-old accomplice and planned to drive a car laden with explosives into the entrance of the stadium in Vienna.
Authorities narrowly managed to avert what would have been a horrendous attack.
Fans of US singer Taylor Swift - swifties - gather in Vienna, Austria, on August 8, 2024, after concerts of the star were cancelled at the last minute amid a serious terror threat
It's now easier than ever for people - particularly teenagers - to become radicalised
Teenagers suspected of participating in and planning terror attacks are arrested in Sydney, New South Wales
The declining age of terror suspects in Europe goes hand in hand with the rise of so-called 'lone wolf' terrorism.
The GTI concludes that young terrorists acting alone are now three times more likely to successfully carry out an attack compared to group-based conspirators.
Unlike traditional terrorist cells, these young extremists often operate in isolation thanks to the ease with which they can be radicalised, the robust network of online support and the access to information and tools required to plan their own attacks.
This is because many of them have no direct links to known terror organisations and lack a prior criminal history, thereby enabling them to operate under the radar of intelligence agencies and avoid pre-emptive intervention.
The perpetrators are not just Islamic extremists - far-right, far-left and anarchistic lone wolves are also responsible for committing lethal attacks.
In fact, researchers and counter-terror chiefs now warn that it is becoming increasingly difficult to identify one clear ideology or motivating factor driving the actions and behaviours of terror suspects.
A 2023 study by the George Washington University's Program on Extremism found that many radicalised individuals do not adhere to one strict set of extremist beliefs.
Rather, they cobble together their own ideas from a wide range of online sources including social media content, videos, blogs, forums and private chats to create what Omar Haijawi-Pirchner, head of the Austrian intelligence service, has described as 'more a fantasy of violence than ideology'.
The UK's 'Prevent' initiative that aims to identify and support individuals at risk of being drawn into terrorism warned of a spike in referrals of individuals classified as having a 'mixed, unstable or unclear ideology' as early as 2020.
This is yet another factor that makes it more difficult for authorities to effectively identify terror suspects and intervene before it is too late.
'For over five years now Counter Terrorism Policing has been warning about the number of children and young people in our casework and investigations,' Counter Terrorism Policing Deputy Assistant Commissioner Vicki Evans said.
'While this trend cannot be reversed by law enforcement alone, we must continue to work with our partners to stop young people, no matter their age, from causing harm to the public.'
Footage captured the moment a driver was arrested in Munich after driving through a crowd
A forensics team investigates a crime scene after the Solingen City festival on August 24, 2024 in Solingen, Germany
German police officers guard the entrance of a bar where several people were killed in Hanau, Germany, February 2020
Increased terror threats in the West
The countries worst affected by terrorism are located primarily in the Middle East and Africa.
Burkina Faso, Pakistan, Syria, Mali, Niger, Nigeria, Somalia, Israel, Afghanistan and Cameroon were the 10 countries that suffered the greatest impact in 2024, according to the GTI.
But last year also saw a significant increase in terror attacks in the Western world, reversing a general decline since 2014.
The number of terrorist incidents in Europe doubled, rising from 34 attacks in 2023 to 67 in 2024.
France and the UK have emerged as particular hotspots, now ranking fifth and sixth among the most affected European nations, with the rate of terror-related arrests in Britain at a five-year high.
The most recent data from the Home Office revealed that the British Counter Terror Police made 248 arrests in 2024 alone - the highest number of arrests in a single year since 2019.
At least three late-stage attacks were prevented at the last minute, according to the Counter Terrorism Police, with 43 large-scale attacks prevented since 2017.
Meanwhile, Germany (27th), the US (34th), France (40th), the UK (41st), Australia (46th), Canada (48th), and Sweden (50th) all feature in the list of the 50 worst-hit nations globally.
Sweden saw eight attacks in 2024, its highest number since 2017, and Australia recorded five - the most in its history.
Perhaps most alarming is the fact that six Western countries that had previously recorded no terrorist attacks in the past five years reported multiple incidents in 2024.
The increasing number of lone-wolf attacks and the difficulties intelligence and law enforcement agencies face in combatting online radicalisation and the increasing 'decentralisation' of terrorism are believed to account for much of this increase.
The threat from such lone wolves cannot be understated - the GTI report found that 93% of all fatal terrorist attacks in the West over the past five years were carried out by lone actors.
But geopolitical tensions and spillover from global conflicts are also playing a role.
For example, Hamas' October 7, 2023 attacks on Israel and the resulting Gaza war triggered a notable rise in Islamic extremist terror incidents as well as anti-Semitic and Islamophobic hate crimes.
