Right-wing extremists poach youngsters in games

According to Home Secretary Thomas Strobel, young online gamers risk being drawn into far-right structures across platforms. The CDU politician warned that children and young adults will be specifically directed and invited to groups and talks. “Games can become the emotional bond between young people, as well as between children and right-wing extremists,” Strobel said Tuesday in Stuttgart.

He added, “Children and young adults are specifically being hunted across gaming platforms, drawn into conversation groups that are more closed, for example than Telegram, and subjected to real turbo-radicalization there.”

According to Strobel, the state’s Center of Competence for Countering Extremism (CONEX) has kept an eye on the radicalization of children online and above all via online games in the past year. Among other things, Strobel said, it examined how “children and young adults are being used as bait and used in dehumanizing ideologies.” According to the study, minors quickly connect with open-minded right-wing extremists through the platforms. The consequences can be very rapid mutual exchange and radical processes.

Since its founding in 2017 under the umbrella of the Interior Ministry in Baden-Württemberg, Connex employees have been addressing young people directly to persuade them to leave the Islamist or far-right scene. These young people have come to the fore through statements or participation in relevant events. The primary task of sociologists, educators, and Muslim scholars is exit advice for extremists of all persuasions and their immediate social environment.

According to information released on Tuesday, more than 100 new cases were received last year, half of them from right-wing extremism and one in three from Islamic origins. Months—sometimes years—are discussed next. She added that about 500 operations have been processed since 2018.