A new report has warned that far-right extremists are using livestream gaming platforms to target and radicalise teenage players. The research, published in Frontiers in Psychology, reveals how extremist groups exploit platforms that allow users to chat and livestream while playing video games, primarily targeting young males.
UK crime and counter-terror agencies have urged parents to be especially alert during the summer holidays. In an unprecedented move, Counter Terrorism Policing, MI5 and the National Crime Agency issued a joint warning that online offenders “will exploit the school holidays to engage in criminal acts with young people when they know less support is readily available”.
Dr William Allchorn, senior research fellow at Anglia Ruskin University, said “gaming-adjacent” platforms were being used as “digital playgrounds” for extremist activity. He found teenage players were deliberately “funnelled” from mainstream social media to these sites, where content is hard to police. The most common ideology pushed was far right, with content celebrating extreme violence and school shootings.
On Tuesday, Felix Winter, 18, was jailed for six years after threatening a mass shooting at his Edinburgh school. The court heard he had been “radicalised” online, spending over 1,000 hours in a pro-Nazi Discord group. Allchorn noted a “more coordinated effort” by far-right groups like Patriotic Alternative to recruit through gaming events, and that extremists now lurk on public groups to identify sympathetic individuals.
The study also highlighted the burden on moderators, who are overwhelmed by harmful content and inconsistent enforcement policies. AI tools struggle with memes and ambiguous language. Last October, MI5 head Ken McCallum revealed that 13% of those investigated for UK terrorism are under 18, a threefold increase in three years.
