In 2023, a 15- and a 17-year-old plotted to attack a Christmas market in Leverkusen (North Rhine-Westphalia). In online chats, the two supporters of the "Islamic State" (IS), considered a terrorist organization by German domestic intelligence, plotted to kill as many people as possible by driving a truck into the crowd of revellers. Two days before the planned attack, the teenagers were arrested after police had become aware of their online chats. The minors were sentenced to four years in prison in 2024.

Cases like this are increasingly worrying German security authorities. The Federal Criminal Police (BKA) has for years been recording an  increase in violent crime . The number of juvenile suspects under the age of 18 has increased by almost a third since 2019, and the number of suspects under the age of 14 has even risen by two-thirds in the same period.

In its latest Police Crime Statistics (PKS) report, the BKA notes some possible reasons for this development: "There are indications that psychological stress among children and adolescents has been increasing for several years. While psychological stress is not a direct cause of criminal behavior, in combination with other adverse factors, it can increase the likelihood of committing (violent) crimes."

Such "adverse factors" include violence within the family, lack of parental affection, poverty, and anxiety triggered by multiple crises such as war, climate change, and the COVID-19 pandemic.

Radicalized through TikTok and Telegram

The BKA considers minors who have fled their home countries to be particularly vulnerable. The young men planning the attack in Leverkusen had an Afghan and a Chechen background. The BKA report says that many lonely young immigrants look online for guidance and answers to their questions, noting that they often end up on the websites of religious or political extremists.

"In recent years, it has been observed that right-wing extremist violent crimes are often preceded by radicalization online," reads the 2024 report by the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution, Germany's domestic intelligence agency. This goes beyond the consumption of propaganda on platforms like Instagram and TikTok, but includes international networking with like-minded individuals on online channels such as Telegram or Discord.

Enemies of the political left and the LGBTQ+ community

The report cites as an example the group "Jung & Stark" (young and strong), which gained notoriety in 2024 through its Instagram account. "This right-wing extremist group, detached from existing regional and national right-wing extremist scenes, marks the entry point into right-wing extremism for many young people, some of whom are minors," the report states.

JS members are said to use ideological fragments to target "enemies" such as the left-wing "Antifa" and the LGBTQ+ movement.

The Berlin-based Violence Prevention Network (VPN) has been working with children, teenagers, and young adults for over 20 years. The non-governmental organization (NGO) is also an important partner for security authorities for developing deradicalization programs.

Drawing radicalized children and teenagers out of the confines of their virtual echo chambers is becoming increasingly difficult, says the VPN's Feride Aktas, who focusses on religiously motivated extremism.

She is critical of political and social discourse in Germany today. "We've reached a point where we're so distanced from one another that we first need to become capable of dialogue again," she says. It is important to avoid immediately pigeonholing young people when they make questionable statements, Aktas says, but suggests addressing the underlying emotions instead.

VPN's Managing Director Thomas Mücke agrees that communication with children and young people is key. He considers conversations with and between young people in a safe environment essential.

He recalls workshops held in schools where emotionally charged situations escalated quickly. "They can say things to each other that adults find difficult," Mücke recalls. But this then provides a starting point for discussion and allows them to open up to other perspectives. "If we lose this ability to communicate, then the extremists have won," Mücke concludes.

When families and schools fail

Aktas also points out that the fallout of the COVID pandemic is still being felt today. Many young people have told her that during that time, no one was there for them — neither at home nor at school. Such girls and boys later feel lonely even when they are in a group, Aktas found. "And then they find connections elsewhere that can draw them into right-wing extremism or Islamist extremism in various ways," says Aktas.

Mücke also points to the fundamental problem that many parents fail to recognize the danger of their children's impending radicalization. He urges parents to contact counseling centers if they have any suspicion. "We look at the situation very closely and immediately engage in discussions with parents," Mücke says.

'High-risk individuals' and IS returnees from Syria

In the past ten years, the VPN has worked on 431 cases of youth who posed a threat to themselves and others. According to Mücke, 75 of them were "high-risk individuals" who pose a particularly high threat to public safety. Sixty-five of them were returnees from Syria, where they had joined the "Islamic State" (IS).

Mücke measures the success of his work by the recidivism rate — the percentage of individuals who are rearrested, reconvicted, or returned to prison after being released from a previous sentence —among the young people he's worked with. And the signs so far are encouraging: Of the 431 boys and girls his organization has work with, only two have relapsed.

This article was originally written in German.

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