Australian children are being radicalised “within days” as online extremism and exploitation surges, according to the nation’s top cop.
So alarmed by the worsening situation — Krissy Barrett will work with international partners at a high-level police summit in the UK next month to urge tech giants to step up.
The Australian Federal Police Commissioner said an accelerating speed and scale of radicalisation would be a key priority for the Five Eyes Law Enforcement Group annual meeting — involving counterparts from the US, UK, Canada and New Zealand.
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It comes as she painted a picture of deteriorating online landscape during a Senate Estimates hearing on Tuesday night — increasingly filled with extremism, terrorism, child exploitation, sadistic digital abuse — where crime is borderless and commercialised.
“Where it used to take months or years to radicalise a person, in some cases, it’s happening in days,” Ms Barrett said.
“The speed and scale of radicalisation is becoming one of our more significant challenges especially when it comes to young people.
“We are seeing that across the world. A lot of our law enforcement colleagues, particularly our Five Eyes colleagues but indeed right across the globe are challenged by the same significant concerns,” she said.
“So much so that when I travel to the UK next month for the Five Eyes Law Enforcement Group annual heads meeting there will be a focus at that meeting on vulnerable communities — specifically young people and how we build an alliance with big tech companies to use AI and other emerging tech to combat these challenges.
“As we all know the tech companies have a big responsibility here. So, we will be working with the tech companies in terms of what they can bring to the table to assist use to protect young people.”
Australia has allocated $74 million over the next two years to establish a national Counter Terrorism Online Centre on home soil.
“It will also provide an early warning system for our counter terrorism teams about hate groups and individuals who are using online platforms to enlist or commit violence,” Ms Barrett said.
AFP Deputy Commissioner National Security Investigations Hilda Sirec said the centre will help agencies triage threats and enhance coordination between jurisdictions to disrupt and intervene early.
She describe it as an “evolving threat” with “more people seeking to advocate hatred fear and violence online”.
“This threat is materialised through terrorists and violent extremist using social media, gaming platforms, online forums, and dark webs to recruit and radicalise others to plan violent acts and build capabilities to executive those acts,” Ms Sirec said.
“We’re seeing online areas as being grievance-filled, where people — children particularity — are being desensitised to graphic material they’re seeing.
“We’re seeing private chat groups on social media act as echo chambers and channels for radicalisation and promotion of violence.
“Of particular concern as the commissioner mentioned is the growing number of young people being targeted and manipulated by violent extremist and terrorists.”
Ms Sirec also revealed 32 people had been charged with violent extremism material offences by Australia’s joint counter-terrorism team — of which 19 were aged between 17 and 13.
Australian Federal Police commissioner Krissy Barrett. Credit: Martin Ollman NewsWire/NCA NewsWire
Greens Senator David Shoebridge also questioned Home Affairs over funding the department received for tackling online radicalisation of young people and why it wasn’t doing more to clamp down dangerous algorithms.
He said young Aussies were increasingly “offered up the menu of hate”.
Counter terrorism coordinator Brendan Dowling said the government was working to introduce Digital Duty of Care to “raise the expectation” on tech giants but acknowledged users were often “one or two clicks away” from extremism.
“I think what is demonstrable is that a person engaging in what might not be prima facie extremist or violent material is often only one of two clicks away from access to much more heinous material,” he told a hearing on Wednesday.
“I think there are obviously a multitude of behaviours or characteristics that we see online. There may be people who are seeking out this material and I think your average internet literate young person will not find it difficult to find quite alarming extremist material.
“But I also think our concern goes to the ease at which you can go from a site on what we would call the clear web or the main-stream internet and sometimes unwittingly find yourself access much more extremist material.”
Home Affairs official Hamish Hansford highlighted the department’s efforts to list White Australia and Hizb ut-Tahrir to Australia’s list of prohibited hate groups, under the Combatting Anti-Semitism, Hate and Extremism Act 2026.
Ms Barrett also raised the work of the National Security Investigations at the hearings — a specialised unit which launched in October 2025 to tackle increasing hate crimes and threats to high-office holders.
She said the team had been “incredibly busy” in the eight months of operations, with 41 people charged with Commonwealth offences — with 29 directly related to threats to parliamentarians and high-officer holders.
Ms Sirec said a dozen of the individuals were charged with anti-Semitic conduct, which has skyrocketed in Australia in since the Gaza war.
While the specialised unit has a presence in Sydney, Melbourne and Canberra — Ms Sirec said the AFP was working to expand it to Western Australia and Queensland next.
It was one of several Senate Estimates hearings this week to detail what the government was doing to combat the rising issue of anti-Semitism, especially in the wake of the Bondi Beach terror attack at a Hanukkah festival.
Australia’s Special Envoy on anti-Semitism Jillian Segal also appeared before Senators and described a protest outside Sydney Opera House in the days after the October 7 Hamas attack as a “critical moment” for the issue.
Ms Segal said the October 9 protest was “clearly a moment where there was hatred expressed to the Jewish community” and nations could taken a “different trajectory” if it had been dealt with differently.
“If it had been stopped and people had said ‘this is unacceptable’, and the police instead of protecting those protesters had indeed taken them, even if not arresting them, but asked them to move on,” Ms Segal.
“If there had been a completely different policing approach, I do think it would have sent a very different message and possibly a different trajectory.”
She also called out broadcasters SBS and ABC for not adopting her recommended International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance definition of anti-Semitism.
Ms Segal said their approach was “obviously not consistent with what I have recommended” for the IHRA definition — which has been endorsed by the Federal and State Governments and adopted by the Royal Commission.
The special envoy also told hearings that she expected a “significant” number of public servants would undertake dedicated anti-Semitism training.
