Children groomed into criminality via online sexual extortion, warns Irish hotline

Young children and adolescents in Ireland are being groomed into criminality through sexual extortion, warns Mick Moran, CEO of the Irish Internet Hotline. Growing concerns focus on a violent, nihilistic extremist group known as 'The Com,' which security services in Europe, the US, and Canada are monitoring.

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The Com groups are often called 764 groups, or nihilistic, violent, extremist groups.

Moran described these groups, sometimes called '764 groups,' as evolving from loose online gangs of young people who trap others into carrying out "outrageous and bizarre acts" that lead to criminality. Sexual extortion is a key tool, where children are convinced to share intimate images under threat of them being shared with family and friends. He stressed that offenders are often young themselves, around 13 or 14, urging parents to be vigilant about their children being both victims and perpetrators.

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Sexual extortion is where a child is groomed into or convinced to give an image or a naked image … the trap is sprung whereby the threat is made that this will be shared with all your families, friends, teachers and schoolmates if you don’t do A, B or C.

Child Neurological Developmental Therapist Ollwyn Moran explained that the adolescent brain's natural wiring for novelty-seeking and a strong need for social validation and peer group belonging makes them particularly vulnerable. She noted that children in this developmental stage operate more from their "limbic brain" and emotional reward system, lacking the capacity to fully understand online interactions or moderate their behavior. This vulnerability is understood and exploited by wrongdoers, she added.

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Be careful your child is not a victim but be careful your child is not one of these pups.