CANBERRA, Nov. 13 (Xinhua) -- Australian authorities on Friday opened the nation's first dedicated hub to track and crack down on rising youth radicalization online.
The 74 million Australian dollar (50.3 million U.S. dollar) Counter Terrorism Online Center will bring the Australian Federal Police (AFP) and Australian Security Intelligence Organization (ASIO) together to detect and disrupt online extremism before it leads to real-world violence.
Announcing the opening of the facility, Home Affairs Minister Tony Burke said that it would allow dedicated officers to identify risks in the online space and give authorities the best opportunity to intervene before harm becomes real.
The opening follows recent warnings from the AFP about the rise of youth radicalization online.
Speaking alongside Burke, AFP Commissioner Krissy Barrett said that counter-terrorism lessons from the past 20 years no longer apply because of the rapid shift in the online threat environment.
"Too many kids are at the crossroads to crime. In part, this is because of the fertile hate breeding grounds where our youth live and play: gaming platforms, dedicated encrypted communication platforms, social media platforms," she said.
Barrett said earlier in November that youth radicalization may be the greatest challenge facing Australia, and Sandra Booth, the acting deputy commissioner of National Security Investigations at the AFP, told an inquiry in October that AI has accelerated the speed at which young Australians can be radicalized online.
The AFP's Counter Terrorism Commander, Paula Hudson, told Nine Entertainment newspapers on Wednesday that 37 Australian minors have been charged with terror offenses in the last four years, 32 of whom were charged in the last two years. ■
