Since 2022, State Security investigations into individuals ready to commit acts of violence concern minors in a proportion of a third. The number of investigations linked to this age group is increasing. In 2024, a 13-year-old boy was arrested.
According to the annual report of State Security, the Belgian civilian intelligence and security service, three quarters of the cases involving these young people related to jihadism. “There has been a sharp increase in the number of cases and arrests of jihadists in Europe since 2022,” comments Francisca Bostyn, the general administrator of Security, in the newspapers Litter et The Morning. She specifies: “These are mainly young people who produce and distribute propaganda material themselves. We see them less at the execution stage, but that doesn’t take away from the fact that they can be very dangerous. They glorify violence.”
Some are tempted to take action. In 2024, a terrorist cell of Muslim extremists – which included three minors and an 18-year-old – was arrested while planning an attack on the Botanique concert hall in Brussels.
Social networks, vectors of extremist ideas
Recently, an investigation carried out by the Flemish public channel VRT demonstrated that young people can become radicalized very quickly via platforms such as Telegram or Discord. A few clicks are enough to access dangerous content and contact groups with extremist ideas.
The VRT notes that one of its journalists was enough to place three “likes” and give a hesitant answer to a few questions to be redirected to an online discussion group with extremist ideas. This happens to many young people without their knowledge, comments the Flemish channel.
“We also note that some young people are becoming radicalized at a rapid pace, as the process has become accessible,” testifies in this report Youcef Naimi, an expert from the Center of Expertise and Advice for Prevention and Intervention in the Face of Radicalism and extremism (Ceapire).
This type of alert is not new. Last April, Belgian police arrested an adult and three minors, suspected of having exchanged messages about a planned terrorist attack.
The four young people, three minors “in their late teens” and a young man of 18, were arrested during searches carried out in Brussels, as well as in several cities in the country (Ninove, Charleroi and Liège). These arrests were part of a police operation aimed at identifying people “potentially violent and suspected of being linked to Islamist extremism”.
“So we don’t want to take any risks.”
No weapons or explosives had been found. But the messages exchanged by the four suspects were “sufficiently worrying for us to intervene and carry out searches,” declared the spokesperson for the Federal Prosecutor’s Office. The “flexibility” of these young people had been underlined: “If someone gives them a weapon, for example, things can go very, very quickly. So we don’t want to take any risks.”
-Belgium is therefore not finished with terrorism. The last deadly attack dates back to October 16, 2023, when Abdesalem Lassoued, a radicalized Tunisian, killed two Swedish supporters in Brussels. He was shot dead the next day by the police.
Belgium is not alone in being affected by “underpants terrorism”. Studies carried out in Europe have highlighted the growing involvement of adolescents in planned terrorist attacks, often motivated by jihadist ideologies. In France, between 2023 and 2024, 23 minors were indicted for violent plans, a significant increase in individuals belonging to this age group compared to previous years. These young people, generally aged 14 to 17, are frequently radicalized online. They are looking for an identity or expressing hatred fueled by digital content.
Adolescents now in the majority
A study by King’s College London found that of 58 arrests linked to Islamic State (Daesh) in Europe over the past nine months, 38 involved teenagers aged 13 to 19. Islamic State recruiters exploit platforms like TikTok, Telegram, X and Facebook to attract young people by playing on their feelings of insecurity and a Manichean view of the world. Good and evil, an opposition as old as humanity, are the glory days of video games.
These young people are often socially isolated and vulnerable to outside influence, making them particularly receptive to messages spread by extremist groups. The latter lure them with short and impactful videos, memes, simplified speeches. Recruiters often target young people in search of an identity, who are psychologically unstable.
The King’s College study also notes an increase in the recruitment of young girls, attracted by speeches promoting their specific role in a future “caliphate”, a name which refers to the puppet “state” founded by the terrorist organization Daesh.
Solutions are being put forward: strengthening regulations for digital platforms, implementing educational and preventive programs, improving monitoring and intervention mechanisms, and psychological and social support.
Such observations are not new. Already in November 2015, a Council of European Ministers aimed to combat the marginalization and radicalization of young Europeans from daycare and kindergarten. Terrorism had left 130 dead on Parisian terraces a few days earlier.
