26/07/22
Met Police warn parents about kids becoming radicalised
The Metropolitan Police has sent letters to London schools warning parents about their children becoming radicalised over the summer holidays.
The letters warn parents to look out for signs of radicalisation, with children spending more time online over the summer holidays.
Detective Jane Corrigan, from the Met’s counter-terrorism command and lead officer in the anti-extremist Prevent programme, sent the letters last week warning parents about the risks of children coming into contact with people seeking to “draw them into extremism”.
Corrigan said she wanted to reach out to “parents and carers across every London borough to share information about spotting signs of radicalisation in young people”.
She continued: “This shouldn’t be a cause for alarm, and I want to reassure you that the risk of radicalisation is still relatively low.
“However, we are seeing an increasing number of young people being drawn into various forms of extremism, so it is important we are doing everything to safeguard and protect young people from these risks.
“When a young person is being drawn down a path towards radicalisation, there are often signs in their behaviour that can indicate this is happening. This could be something like becoming more secretive about who they are speaking to, or becoming less tolerant of other people’s views.”
Parents were advised to contact Prevent for support or use the ACT Early website to identify signs of radicalisation.
Of all referrals to the Prevent counter-extremism programme, around 30 per cent come from schools.
According to research from University College London Institute of Education, extreme views are widespread in English classrooms, including homophobia, racism and conspiracy theories.
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