The FBI is warning parents that their children could be lured into terrorist gangs. All this might take place without leaving their homes.
Usually, tales of recruiting into violent terrorist gangs do not call to mind middle-class children playing video games after days in their suburban junior high schools.
However, recruiters are active among groups usually referred to by their initials—NVE, Nihilistic Violent Extremists. Their tool is the Internet, and their effect is real. The dire situation warrants a close look.
Making Nihilism Violent
Nihilism is a philosophical movement based on the idea that all values are baseless. It is most often associated with the ideas of Friedrich Nietzsche (1844-1900), who argued that traditional values had declined so far that people no longer had guiding principles. Therefore, their lives were meaningless, which triggers a desire to destroy.
The NVE adherent differs from the classic nihilist in that the desire to destroy becomes a driving force. The best short description of NVE comes from Seamus Hughes of The University of Nebraska’s National Counterterrorism Innovation, Technology, and Education Center (NCITE), who calls it “violent apathy.”
For those unacquainted with NVE, this description seems to be a contradiction in terms. Apathy is normally associated with idleness, not doing anything because the outcome is simply not worth the effort. How, then, could apathy be violent?
The answer is clear to anyone who has ever witnessed the tantrums of two-year-olds. The children want something that they do not have. Therefore, they use the only tools they have—loud voices and violent (but pointless) physical gestures. There is no logic involved.
The same is true of the young nihilists. They desire a sense of importance that they can only gain through violence. Therefore, they exercise their rage by becoming violent.
Recruiting on the Internet
FBI Director Kash Patel indicated the scale of this problem. “We have in this country 1,700 domestic terrorism investigations, a large chunk of which are nihilistic violent extremism, NVE—those who engage in violent acts motivated by a deep hatred of society, whatever that justification they see it is.”
Among NVEs, much of the organizational work happens on the Internet. In a recent article, published by television station KCTV, Amy Ramsey, a supervisory Special Agent with the FBI in Kansas City, briefly described the recruiting process. The most common recruits are between eleven and eighteen years old. They usually see themselves as alienated from family and society and therefore spend a lot of time communicating online.
“Both boys and girls are targeted, but predominantly female,” Ramsey said. “It really starts benignly, just building rapport and building a friendship.” She adds that NVE recruiters use many of the tools of sexual extortion. One common tactic is to encourage a young girl to send a provocative photograph, and then use it to blackmail her into committing violent acts. Many such victims have committed various forms of self-harm, including suicide.
Once initiated, the victim is then urged to commit suicide or to commit an act of mass violence. Some incidents involve, for example, gun violence aimed at mosques or religious sites. The goal is to create chaos and destruction out of hatred for society, thus the term nihilism applies.
Problem—Arresting Them at Age Eighteen is Too Late
Not all recruits need to be blackmailed; many join with fervor. They see in the group a sense of active inclusion previously absent from their lives. Such budding teenagers move rapidly up through the ranks and play leadership roles by age fifteen or sixteen. At this point, the U.S. legal system plays an unwitting role in sustaining the networks.
The primary goal of most juvenile justice systems is rehabilitation. Their goal is to return the offender to normal society as soon as possible. Sentences in juvenile detention centers are usually short and emphasize psychological care rather than punishment. However, such systems are notoriously ineffective.
By the time NVE “leaders” transition to the adult justice system, they have been involved for up to seven years and have honed their skills accordingly. Judges usually seal juvenile records, so hardened adult terrorists may well show up as “first-time offenders.” Even in the unlikely event that they draw significant jail time, their successors in the NVE pipeline are ready to take leadership.
Prevention is the Only Remedy
The steps to preventing children from falling into NVE networks are much the same as preventing other forms of online harm. Vigilance is the key. The FBI urges parents to limit the frequency and the number of hours children use devices. They need to monitor the applications their children use and the material that they find there. They also need to establish and maintain lines of communication with their children. Parents, especially, need to be aware of any sudden changes in their children’s moods and actions, as these are strong signs of greater involvement with those children they “meet” on the Internet.
However, the most important obstacle to NVE is a stable family firmly turn toward God and His law. The Catholic family has all the elements to eliminate the need for outside links like NVE. Children develop habits of virtue and prayer that give life meaning and purpose. This supernatural life annihilates nihilism and gives children all they need to fulfill their vocation in life.
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