Youth Insight: Exposing the Consequences of Extremist Content

Client: Counter Terrorism Policing

Record numbers of teenage boys are being arrested for terrorism-related offences, with many beginning their journey to extremism online. Counter Terrorism Policing (CTP) needed to reach this vulnerable audience before curiosity became something more dangerous. Through qualitative and quantitative research, we challenged our assumptions about how teenage boys engage with risk, authority and online influence. The research revealed three insights that challenged our assumptions:

- Boys weren’t unaware of terrorism, they simply didn’t recognise terrorism in much of the content they encountered online - CTP’s authority increased credibility rather than reducing engagement - Consequences needed to be tailored to different life stages if they were to change behaviour. These findings reshaped both the creative and media strategy. Instead of imitating youth culture, we used the conventions of social video to make risk visible in the environments where it already existed, and a granular targeting approach ensured consequences felt relevant to different age groups. Consequently, 80% recognised extremist content as illegal, 82–85% said they would think twice before sharing, and more than 90% believed the consequences shown could happen in real life.