The Attention Machine

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Recruited to Harm

The mechanics that keep a feed compelling — tasks to complete, a status to earn, the pull of belonging — can be aimed at something far darker. Police across Europe and the United States are warning that organised online networks now use these same game-like methods to draw children into harming themselves and others.

How to read this page. Tap any underlined word for the precise term and a short definition. Expand the "Deeper" box for the sources, our reasons for keeping this page deliberately high-level, and where to get help. The main text works on its own.

A warning from the authorities, not an internet rumour

This is one of the hardest things on this site to write about calmly, so it is worth being clear where the account comes from. In 2024 and 2025 Europol warned that criminal networks are recruiting minors through social media and gaming platforms. In a parallel alert, the FBI told the public about violent online networks — which it groups under the label "764" — doing much the same thing. These are official law-enforcement warnings, backed by investigations across dozens of countries, not rumour or moral panic. They are also describing something still rare against the vast ordinary backdrop of young people's lives online. Both things are true: it is serious, and it is not everywhere.

Borrowed mechanics

These networks invent no new psychology. They borrow the same gamification the platforms already run on — tasks to complete, a score or rank to climb, a group that makes you feel chosen — and point it at coercion instead of engagement. Europol's own report describes recruitment through coded messaging and "gamification," with young people offered money, status, or a sense of belonging. The approach is ordinary precisely because the setting is: a child is reached inside the games and chats where they already spend their time, by something that, at first, looks like a game.

What the warnings describe

At a high level — and this page stays at a high level on purpose — the pattern the authorities describe runs like this. A network makes contact on a mainstream platform and builds a connection. Pressure and blackmail follow, pushing a young person into escalating acts: against themselves, against others, or producing illegal material, which is then circulated to keep them trapped. Europol found that minors now feature in most of the criminal markets it tracks, and describes a "violence-as-a-service" model in which the people giving the orders stay hidden while children carry the risk. The FBI describes the same machinery of coercion and blackmail. We do not set out the recruitment methods or the acts in detail, for reasons explained in the box below.

Why the platforms are the substrate — and where responsibility sits

The platforms did not set out to enable this. But three of their ordinary features make them the ground these predators work on: enormous reach into young users; engagement built around the very game mechanics the networks exploit; and how easily strangers can contact and group together in private. This is the same distinction this site draws for state actors and the manosphere — the system underneath is emergent and commercial; the abuse layered on top is deliberate and criminal. "No conspiracy, only incentives" describes the machine. It does not describe the people using it here. So the response splits three ways: safer platform design — the thread running through this whole site — alongside law enforcement, and, most immediately, the awareness of the adults around a child.

For parents and carers

The protective factor the authorities themselves stress is not surveillance or fear — it is connection. Coercion of this kind runs on isolation and shame, so a child who can tell a trusted adult that something has gone wrong is far harder to trap. Keep the conversation open; make it safe to come to you even when they think they have done something wrong; take an interest in the platforms and chats they use. If you are worried that a child is being targeted, contact your local police or emergency number, and report online child exploitation to the proper channel — in the United States, the FBI's IC3 and the NCMEC CyberTipline; elsewhere, your national hotline. There is more for families on our For Parents page.

The sources, what we've deliberately left out, and where to get help +

Why this page is deliberately thin on detail. We describe this only at the level law enforcement has chosen to make public, and we have left out the networks' own terminology and their methods on purpose. Naming the techniques in detail can help the people who use them and re-traumatise the people who have survived them. The police warnings exist to be acted on and reported to, not studied — so if you need the operational specifics, they are the right source, and the links below lead to them.

A sensitive topic. This page touches self-harm and suicide. If you or someone you know is struggling, you are not alone and support is available; in an immediate emergency, contact your local emergency services. Talking to a doctor or a trusted person is a good first step.

What you can do →
Where to get help →
For Parents →
What We Don't Yet Know →