Gaming as a danger: how young people radicalize through computer games

When young gamers become a target: extremists are increasingly using gaming platforms to address children and adolescents. The digital radicalization of children is an increasing threat, the Baden-Württemberg Ministry of the Interior of the dpa said. The country therefore wants to work at the Interior Ministers’ Conference in Bremerhaven for several measures in the fight against radicalization on gaming platforms.

According to the ministry, extremist groups, especially right-wing extremists, Islamists and conspiracy ideologists- use online and gaming platforms to address young people low-threshold and to influence ideologically. “Contact is often carried out-unnoticed by parents or pedagogical specialists-via voice chats, private groups or disguised content,” said the State Ministry. Certain gaming forums served as retreats for extremist actors who could spread ideologies there unhindered. Anonymity and technical barriers make the intervention difficult.

In the fight against radicalization, the authorities are still relatively at the beginning. On the initiative of the southwest, the interior ministers should therefore decide that extremist recruitment strategies on social media, online forums and gaming platforms are extensively analyzed. Proposals for action for improved cooperation between security authorities, platform operators and institutions of youth and media protection are also to be developed.

Strobl speaks of “dangerous suction”

“Today, children and adolescents naturally spend a significant part of their time online-on social networks, on video platforms, in forums or on gaming platforms,” ​​says Baden-Württemberg Interior Minister Thomas Strobl (CDU). “Of course, they are increasingly getting into the focus of extremist actors.” The development in the gaming scene is alarming.

“In voice chats, forums and even directly in games themselves, extremist groups use the proximity to young people to build trust, to anchor their ideology-and they, often creeping, often unnoticed,” emphasized Strobl. Algorithms acted as an amplifier, especially in social media. “Anyone who comes across extremist content is constantly getting more and more of it without being asked. This withdrawal from the democratic into an ideological world quickly becomes a dangerous suction.”