France discovers how video games and extreme violence recruit children to jihadism
French justice is in shock over a 12-year-old boy who had amassed more than 1,700 videos of tortures and beheadings of Muslim groups.
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According to the agency Associated Press (13 April 2025), France is facing a disturbing and increasingly frequent phenomenon: the radicalisation of minors through digital channels such as video games, violent pornography and social networks. The most striking case He is a boy of just 12 years old, convicted of terrorism-related offences after consuming an extraordinary amount of extremist content..
This minor, who seemed to be leading a normal life between video games and schoolwork, was hiding a digital hell: 1,739 jihadist videos, including scenes of decapitation, executions, tortures and homemade bombs. His mother, in a state of shock, insists she knew nothing about it. She thought her son was «just playing on his console.».
The forensic experts who analysed the minor's electronic devices speak of a “phenomenal amount” of violent content, including a video in which A man appears being slowly dismembered while still alive..
An accelerated radicalisation process via mobile phone
French justice warns that The recruitment of minors often begins in an apparently innocent way., like a Google search or a TikTok video. In this boy's case, it all began after he received a Qur'an as a gift from an aunt. From there, the automatic algorithms He was taken to closed forums, encrypted chats and jihadi propaganda.
According to the anti-terrorism prosecutor Paul-Edouard Lallois, This type of content can completely undo a child's moral references and turn them into a dehumanised soldier before the age of 18.
19 minors charged in France with terrorism in 2024 alone
The figures reveal the scale of the problem. In 2022, only 2 minors were charged with terrorism offences. In 2023, there were already 15. In 2024, the figure has reached 19., according to Olivier Christen, the national anti-terrorism prosecutor. And many of these young people They are between 12 and 15 years old..
In Spain, the situation is the same. Of the 81 people arrested for jihadism in 2024, 15 were minors. The report of the Spanish Ministry of the Interior, agrees with the French prosecutor's office: they are young people with little religious training, who radicalise online and are willing to kill.
These minors do not come exclusively from dysfunctional families nor do they present clear risk profiles. They are often children with good grades and apparently normal behaviour, who have a digital social life and the technical skills to hide their activities.
From the video game to the attackt
The new generation of jihadists is not trained in clandestine mosques, but rather through digital channels, in closed virtual communities where minors learn to make bombs, plan attacks and kill with knives. The content usually begins with Gore videos or extreme pornography, which generate addiction and emotional desensitisation.
The Salafist mosque is in the digital world.
The new generation of jihadists is not trained in clandestine mosques, but rather through digital channels, in closed virtual communities where minors learn to make bombs, plan attacks and kill with knives. The content usually begins with Gore videos or extreme pornography, which generate addiction and emotional desensitisation.
The case of this 12-year-old boy in France is neither an exception nor an anomaly. It is the most visible symptom of a threat that is stealthily growing across Europe, exploiting children's innocence, loneliness and digital hyper-connectivity. Jihadist radicalisation has found a new battleground: teenagers' bedrooms, online gaming, encrypted messaging apps and viral videos that circulate unfiltered..
Even the intelligence services of countries such as the United States, the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia and New Zealand —gathered on the network Five Eyes— have broken their traditional silence to publicly warn that “Radicalised minors can pose a terrorist threat that is just as real and serious as that from adults.”
All in all, it paints a disturbing reality: Jihadism no longer needs intermediaries, a physical presence, or face-to-face recruiters. All it takes is a screen. With the help of algorithms that recommend increasingly extreme content, digital platforms—whether consciously or not—can steer a child from an innocent game to a beheading video, and from there to a jihadist channel where they will receive instructions on how to kill.
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