From subtle to militant: How Islamists recruit children and young people on social media

Situation Report "Islamism on the Net 2018" and Handout "Salafism Online" Presented

Today,Federal Minister for Family Affairs Dr. Franziska Giffey presented the situation report "Islamism on the Net 2018". It is compiled and published by jugendschutz.net. The report makes clear how Islamist actors present their patterns of interpretation to young people. In doing so, they deliberately tap into the media communication behavior of many young people.

For the report, jugendschutz.net reviewed a total of 19,200 offerings with Islamist content. In 649 posts on social media, a total of 872 violations of youth protection laws were identified and investigated. The majority of the cases of Islamist propaganda sighted in 2018 (87%) were on foreign social media services such as YouTube, Facebook, Instagram or Telegram. YouTube deleted posts after notification in 99% of cases, Instagram in 98%, Facebook in 82%, and Telegram in only 58% of reported violations. The entire 2018 Situation Report: "Islamism on the Net" is available for download at https://www.hass-im-netz.info/bericht2018/.

In order to take action against agitation from the Islamist spectrum, information and pedagogically prepared materials are necessary in addition to commitment. The brochure "Salafism Online" provides such materials for practical work in schools and extracurricular youth work and offers background information on propaganda strategies on the Net. It is published by jugendschutz.net and klicksafe in cooperation with ufuq.de and can be found at https://www.klicksafe.de/salafismus/.

The German Federal Ministry for Family Affairs, Senior Citizens, Women and Youth (BMFSFJ), in addition to jugendschutz.net and Ufuq e.V., supports numerous model projects within the framework of the federal program "Democracy Live!" that develop approaches on how to strengthen the media competence of young people and how multipliers can be trained in dealing with extremist content on the net.

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