A sharp rise in online misogyny and violent behaviour among young men and boys has led UK authorities to form a special task force focused on stopping those who exploit vulnerable women and girls or pose a risk of committing mass violence. Matt Jukes, Britain’s lead counter-terrorism official, told The Guardian that counter-terrorism teams will now collaborate with the National Crime Agency (NCA) in a first-of-its-kind effort to tackle the growing danger of online radicalisation. He called this initiative a “decisive moment” in the country’s approach to addressing the troubling trend of young men becoming obsessed with violent content online.

The task force will keep an eye on individuals engaging in material involving killings, sexual violence, or self-harm. It will also target so-called “com networks”, online groups mainly made up of young males who coordinate efforts to find and manipulate victims, particularly those vulnerable due to mental health issues like suicidal thoughts or eating disorders, according to The Guardian. Jukes, the Metropolitan Police’s assistant commissioner for specialist operations, said, “What we’ve seen over the years is the characteristics of those cases looking increasingly similar.” The growing concern, he explained, is that it's getting harder to tell the difference between someone who might become a school shooter, a terrorist, or someone plotting violence against women until it’s already too late.

The Guardian reports that communication networks grew six times in the UK between 2022 and 2024, with hundreds of young men participating. According to the National Crime Agency (NCA), these groups are often motivated by the desire for "kudos" or online fame. The NCA’s director general of threats, James Babbage, informed The Guardian that many of these individuals focus on targeting women and girls who are already struggling with mental health issues. “They’re looking at suicidal ideation sites. They’re looking at eating disorders forums,” Babbage expressed. “In general, they are looking for victims who are already vulnerable.” Jukes cautioned that the internet has "turbocharged" the spread of harmful ideologies. He pointed out that many young men are not just coming across extreme content but are also being encouraged by online communities that feed their anger and hatred. Speaking to The Guardian, he said, “The idea that the interests of men and boys have been relegated, and the interests of women have been elevated, leads directly to violent misogyny.”

The push for stricter action has intensified following several high-profile incidents, notably the Southport attack, where a man killed three girls during a dance class last July. Although he had been referred to the UK’s anti-extremism program, Prevent, three times, he was turned away each time because he didn’t show clear signs of ideological extremism, even though he displayed violent behaviour and had a disturbing fascination with school shootings. Babbage conveyed The Guardian: “The violence-fixated individuals that are coming up on the radar for terrorism policing, the tech-enabled violence against women and girls that police are seeing, and the com networks that we’re seeing engaged in child sexual abuse and cybercrime—it’s sort of the same threat.”

The task force is calling on major tech companies to take action. Jukes emphasised that these platforms need to prevent harmful content from being promoted through algorithms to at-risk young people and should support law enforcement in identifying individuals looking for violent material. “The scale we’re talking about is beyond human intervention,” he cautioned. “There are too many users, too much traffic.”

Jukes and Babbage both highlighted that the nature of the threat is changing quickly, with the boundaries between online abuse, terrorism, and technology-fuelled misogyny becoming increasingly unclear. They clarified that the UK must stop viewing these issues as isolated and start addressing them as part of a more significant, connected problem.