𝓤𝓷𝓲𝓽𝓮𝓭 𝓝𝓮𝔀𝓼

Hundreds of children under the age of 10 were referred to the Government’s anti-terror programme, as fears intensify over how much time youngsters spend online. A record 10,293 referrals were made to Prevent for 9,957 people in the year to September, figures show. And this included 393 referrals for children under the age of 10. Another 3,655 youngsters were aged between 11 and 15, Home Office statistics revealed.

The head of MI5, Sir Ken McCallum has previously warned of a “phenomenon” of children appearing in more terrorism investigations. Security experts fear children are being exposed to vast swathes of extremist content, including terrorist propaganda and videos of mass violence on social media. This is, in turn, desensitising them to atrocities and normalising violence, experts fear.

Conservative shadow minister Neil O’Brien said: “The rate that children are being referred to our counter-terrorism system should stop every parent in the country cold.

“Labour has been warned, again and again, that the radicalisation of young people is becoming a national security problem in its own right.

“Children have been spending far too much time online, where they are exposed to dangerous and harmful material.

“Social media platforms need to take serious measures to stop the spread of radicalising content.

“Labour dismissed a ban on phones in schools as an unnecessary gimmick and only moved once the Conservative Party had forced its hand on both smartphones and a social media ban. The Government must go further and faster than it has so far.”

The figures published on Thursday also show 2,103 Prevent referrals were due to concerns over extreme right-wing ideology (20% of the total), up from 1,480 in the previous 12 months, while there were 860 referrals (8%) about Islamist extremism, down from 945.

Some 818 referrals (8%) related to fascination with extreme violence or mass casualty attacks, 95 (1%) were for incel (involuntarily celibate) extremism and 32 (0.3%) for left-wing extremism, while 353 (3%) were for multiple ideologies with no dominant ideology identified.

But the small number of suspected Islamist extremists referred to Prevent has prompted warnings that it is missing the biggest terror threats.

Roughly three out of four MI5 terrorism investigations are into Islamist plots.

Reform’s Zia Yusuf said: “Prevent is totally unfit.

“I am deeply sceptical of any data that Prevent is putting out

“He [Sir William Shawcross] said that Prevent had a, quote, ‘institutional hesitance to investigate Islamist extremism,’ which for a body that’s supposed to be a first line of defence against terrorism, and given that the vast majority of MI5’s caseload is Islamist terrorism, I genuinely cannot think of a worse indictment that you can give of an organisation.

“It has essentially become a glorified social workers programme.

“One of the policies I have already announced is […] they will be mandated to deploy resources in proportion to MI5s case load at any given time.

“So rather than, quote, ‘having an institutional hesitancy’ […] over something like Islamist extremism […] they will be forced, and they will deploy the majority of their resources on ensuring that scourge in this country is rooted out.”

Following initial screening and assessment, Prevent referrals who are deemed at risk of radicalisation may be passed to a multi-agency “channel panel”.

Chaired by local authorities, these panels determine the extent of a person’s susceptibility to radicalisation and whether a tailored package of support is necessary to address the risk.

Overall, there were 1,810 referrals in the year to September that were then adopted as a channel case, or 18% of the total.

This is up from 11% of all referrals in the previous 12 months.

Some 675 of the 1,810 cases adopted by channel were children between the age of 11 and 15.

Shadow Home Secretary Chris Philp said: “Prevent is ignoring Islamist extremism, despite it remaining the deadliest terror threat our country faces.

“The failure to address this and intervene is putting the public in danger.

“Prevent’s role is vital to national security, but it must be fit for purpose.

“Labour do not have the backbone to confront this reality, and that is a national security failure.

“Islamist terror has caused 94 per cent of terror murders in the last 25 years and is 75 per cent of counter terror caseloads – but only accounts for 8 per cent of Prevent. This is completely wrong.”