“Sadistic” online gangs dominated by teenage boys are committing harrowing crimes – including child abuse and sharing extreme material that desensitises them to brutal violence, the National Crime Agency (NCA) has warned.
Reports relating to the so-called “com networks” increased six times in the UK between 2022 and 2024, involving thousands of users and victims. Some members have already been convicted of crimes in the UK and other investigations are ongoing. The NCA’s annual National Strategic Assessment, published on Tuesday, described the groups as networks on social media or messaging platforms that “routinely share harmful content and extremist or misogynistic rhetoric”.
It said: “Extreme and illicit imagery depicting violence, gore and child sexual abuse material is frequently shared amongst users, normalising and desensitising participants to increasingly extreme content and behaviours.
“’Com’ networks use extreme coercion to manipulate their victims, who are often children, into harming or abusing themselves, their siblings or pets, and re-victimising them by doxing or appropriation by other offenders.
“Members of ‘Com’ networks are usually young men who are motivated by status, power, control, misogyny, sexual gratification or an obsession with extreme or violent material.
“The emergence of these types of online platforms are almost certainly causing some individuals, especially younger people, to develop a dangerous propensity for extreme violence.”
Director general of the NCA Graeme Biggar said: “This is a hugely complex and deeply concerning phenomenon. Young people are being drawn into these sadistic and violent online gangs where they are collaborating at scale to inflict, or incite others to commit, serious harm.
“These groups are not lurking on the dark web, they exist in the same online world and platforms young people use on a daily basis. It is especially concerning to see the impact this is having on young girls who are often groomed into hurting themselves and in some cases, even encouraged to attempt suicide.”
Members of the online networks often want to gain notoriety by inflicting the most harm on their victims or sharing the most disturbing content, while others are paedophiles who sell material to other sex offenders. Mr Biggar urged parents and carers to speak to children about what they are doing online. The NCA said some victims may not realise a crime has been committed against them because they have been groomed.
Mr Biggar added: “Operating online clearly makes these offenders feel protected and out of reach but that is absolutely not the case. There have already been convictions, we and partners have made arrests in the UK and overseas, and further investigations are ongoing.
“I’d encourage parents and carers to have regular conversations with their child about what they do online, and ensure they know they have your support should they need it.”
The online landscape of these networks is vast, with many groups having a different focus such as cybercrime or inflicting physical harm, the NCA said. However, they said membership is loose and fluid which leads to the range of different criminality being committed by individual offenders.
Last month following an NCA investigation, Richard Ehiemere was convicted of fraud and indecent images of children (IIOC) offences, committed when he was just 17 and linked to a prolific online harms group. In January, 19-year-old Cameron Finnigan was jailed for assisting suicide, possession of IIOC, a terror offence, and criminal damage, following an investigation by Counter Terror Policing.
The NCA said evidence suggests that offenders are motivated by gaining notoriety and status, which can be achieved based on the harm they inflict and the depravity of the content they share. The networks share content relating to a broad and diverse range of extreme belief systems that they use to justify violence.
Sexual gratification can also be a motivating factor and in some cases, offenders are finding opportunities to profit from their criminality directly, or by selling material to others. The NCA said it is engaging with experts and academics to improve its understanding of motivations of offenders and what can be done to deter them.
Also common across networks is the use of coercion and extortion tactics, it said. Offenders manipulate victims by grooming them, or convincing them that they are in a relationship.
As with other types of grooming, this leads to victims not recognising themselves as such, or being too scared to come forward, which likely contributes to the underreporting of this offending.
Jess Phillips, Minister for Safeguarding and Violence Against Women and Girls, said: “The scale of child sexual abuse in this report is absolutely horrific and drives home the need for a co-ordinated response to tackle this global issue.
“We have seen the heartbreaking impact of crimes such as grooming and sextortion on victims around the world—many of them children who have been blackmailed and manipulated into sharing images of themselves, which has devastatingly led to some children taking their own lives.
“This is why this government is using every lever at our disposal to make the UK a safer place for children online, including implementation of the Online Safety Act which has some of the strongest laws in the world to protect children.
“My message to parents is to have open conversations with your children and to seek support if you are concerned about child sexual abuse.
“My message to tech companies is simple: this is your responsibility too. You must ensure your platforms are safe for children, so that we can protect the most vulnerable and put predators behind bars.”
Assistant chief constable Alastair Simpson, national policing lead for child sexual exploitation and abuse, said: “The growth of Com networks that incite and encourage children and vulnerable adults towards acts of self-harm, suicide and violence is hugely concerning.
“The role of undercover online officers is vital in this space, and my message to anyone who is exploiting children online: remember that there is no space where criminals operate that we cannot go and investigations into these networks have already begun.
“Policing will always play its part, but social media providers have a clear role to play in monitoring and regulating their platforms to root out this abhorrent criminal behaviour and make all online spaces safe for children and adults.
“I would encourage anyone who has been a victim of this type of crime to report it to police, you will be met with empathy and respect, and there are organisations that can support you.”
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