getting indicted.
Geoff: Thank you for sharing
your reporting with us.
Thank you for coming in.
>> Of course.
Thank you.
Geoff: After a racist rampage at
a Buffalo supermarket last
month, the shooter admitted he
had been radicalized by
extremist, racist content
online.
It was yet another example of
the link between online
extremism and mass shooters.
Correspondent Ali rogin sat down
with an expert to discuss how
parents can recognize the
warning signs of online
radicalization.
Ali: As young people spend more
time in virtual networks,
parents and guardians are
looking for ways to keep them
safe.
Cynthia Miller Idris is the
director of research at American
university's polarization and
extremism research innovation
lab.
The lab created a toolkit to
help caregivers spot warning
signs of radicalization.
Cynthia Miller, Idris, thank you
so much for joining us.
Extremism and racist belief
systems are not new, but online
platforms have certainly allowed
extremists to reach more people.
Why are young people, especially
white boys, it seems, so
susceptible?
Cynthia: Well, what we're seeing
today, I mean, the ideas are age
old.
We have always seen racist
beliefs, extremist fringe
beliefs and violent beliefs
circulating.
But you used to have to kind of
seek it out as a destination or
sign up for a listserv.
Now, wherever you spend time
online, it's much more likely
that those kind of hateful ideas
encounter you, that you run into
them wherever you are.
And boys in particular spend a
lot of time in sites like online
gaming or meme sharing sites, or
sites where there happens to
also be a lot of toxic and
hateful content circulating,
often in the form of jokes.
And that can be something that
can open up rabbit holes to
further radicalization.
Ali: And how is a pandemic
exacerbated these conditions?
Cynthia: You know we moved to a
situation where millions of
children and adults started
spending all of their time
online, their social time, their
school time.
And that led to just many more
opportunities to encounter this
harmful content.
But we also know that there was
more content circulating during
the pandemic.
So an increase in conspiracy
theories, just like we have seen
increases in anti-semitic or
anti-asian hate crimes and
conspiracy theories.
We saw that circulating in
online spaces as well.
So it became a toxic mix in
which more time online and more
circulation of conspiracy
theories and hateful content
created a kind of tinderbox.
Ali: Yeah.
And I want to talk about some of
the the the targets of that
hateful content.
I mean, we talked about how
white boys sometimes are the
most susceptible.
But of course, there are many
other individuals who are a part
of this conversation, girls,
children of color.
They might not be the main
targets of radicalization, but
they certainly have a stake in
this conversation.
So how did those groups fit into
this?
Cynthia: Well, there's two
things.
One, everyone online is
encountering some of this
information and some of this
hateful content at some point
sometimes as victims.
So we will hear in webinars with
middle school students, for
example, that students of color
might stop going to online
gaming platforms because they
encounter hateful content
against themselves, that they
might use a different avatar or
name to sort of obscure their
own racial identity.
So kids are being affected by
this, whether they are, you
know, being drawn into hateful
content as a perpetrator or
victimized.
And we also see that there's
lots of forms of hateful
content.
So there's anti-lgbtq content
out there, anti-immigrant
content, anti-woman content.
So there are a lot of different
kinds of supremacist and hateful
content circulating.
Ali: I want to pick up on what
you just mentioned about online
communities.
How have those communities
changed the environment that
you've been tracking?
Cynthia: Part of what a lot of
older adults might not
understand if they don't spend
much time in these online gaming
platforms, is that this isn't
just a game anymore.
They really are communities in
which they have chat rooms and
and platforms where people can
communicate with audio and with
and with text.
Ali: And how do you suggest
caregivers try to help protect
children against online
radicalization?
Cynthia: Well, one of the first
things we advise and we created
a guide together with the
southern poverty law center, to
advise parents and caregivers,
which is free.
And I advise people to to access
it.
You can, you know, first of all,
just express curiosity with kids
in your lives, whether that's a
niece or a nephew.
You know, ask them where they
spend time online.
Ask them to explain what a meme
We find that's one of the best
ways approach them as the
experts who tell you how they
encounter this content.
How does it get shared?
Where do kids share it over text
chains?
Do they run into it in different
kinds of spaces where they spend
time online?
So asking with curiosity and
then trying to react, not with
shame, which can drive them
further online, but with but
with more questions that can
produce more information about
what they already understand,
can open up dialog and help
build a relationship that can
pull them out of it rather than
driving them further toward it.
Ali: Cynthia Miller Idris with
American university, thank you
so much for your time.
Cynthia: Thank you for having