'Sadistic and violent': NCA says online gangs of teen boys pose grave risk

Warning: This article contains details some may find distressing

“Sadistic” online gangs involving teenage boys are committing horrific crimes, including child abuse and sharing extreme material, the National Crime Agency (NCA) has warned.

Reports of these so-called “com networks” – as labelled by the NCA because of the online communities they form part of – have increased six times in the UK between 2022 and 2024, involving thousands of users and victims.

The NCA says these networks are typically made up of young men driven by desires for “status, power, control, misogyny, sexual gratification, or an obsession with extreme or violent material”.

Although adults are involved in these online communities, of particular concern is that offenders are predominantly teenage boys who often share sadistic and misogynistic material, and have been seen to target those their own age or younger.

The NCA and UK law enforcement have identified a number of cases in which girls, some as young as 11, have been coerced into seriously harming or sexually abusing themselves, siblings or pets.

According to the NCA, members use “extreme coercion” to manipulate victims, often children, and further victimise them through sharing private information online or exposing them to other offenders.

Some members want to gain notoriety by inflicting the most harm or sharing the most disturbing content, while others are paedophiles who trade material with other sex offenders.

Several network members have already been convicted in the UK, with ongoing investigations into further cases.

The NCA’s annual National Strategic Assessment, published on Tuesday, described the groups as networks on social media or messaging platforms that “routinely share harmful content and extremist or misogynistic rhetoric”.

It said: “Extreme and illicit imagery depicting violence, gore and child sexual abuse material is frequently shared amongst users, normalising and desensitising participants to increasingly extreme content and behaviours.

“The emergence of these types of online platforms are almost certainly causing some individuals, especially younger people, to develop a dangerous propensity for extreme violence.”

Director general of the NCA Graeme Biggar urged parents and carers to speak to children about what they are doing online.

He said: “This is a hugely complex and deeply concerning phenomenon.

“Young people are being drawn into these sadistic and violent online gangs where they are collaborating at scale to inflict, or incite others to commit, serious harm.

“These groups are not lurking on the dark web, they exist in the same online world and platforms young people use on a daily basis.

“It is especially concerning to see the impact this is having on young girls who are often groomed into hurting themselves and in some cases, even encouraged to attempt suicide.”

The NCA said some victims may not realise a crime has been committed against them because they have been groomed.

Assistant chief constable Alastair Simpson, national policing lead for child sexual exploitation and abuse, said: “The growth of Com networks that incite and encourage children and vulnerable adults towards acts of self-harm, suicide and violence is hugely concerning.

“The role of undercover online officers is vital in this space, and my message to anyone who is exploiting children online: remember that there is no space where criminals operate that we cannot go and investigations into these networks have already begun.”

Andy Burrows, chief executive of the Molly Rose Foundation, called on the Government and regulator Ofcom to take action over extreme material online.

He said: “Despite being repeatedly warned of the threat posed by these groups, Ofcom has failed to introduce a single targeted measure to tackle disturbing suicide and self-harm offences. This glaring gap in its regulatory regime must be closed.

“The Prime Minister must now take decisive action to ensure the Online Safety Act is fit for purpose in the face of new online risks and the threat posed by the fluid ideologies that are fuelling this troubling wave of extreme violence.”

An Ofcom spokesperson said the regulator has outlined several measures that platforms can adopt to protect users from suicide and self-harm content.

Additional protections for children, including measures on algorithms and age checks, are set to be finalised next month.