Social media is driving a record rise in extremism in schools, the UK’s leading terror expert has warned, following a surge in the number of pupils referred to counter-terror authorities by their teachers.
Figures published by the Home Office on Thursday showed that 39 per cent of all referrals to the Prevent counter-terror scheme in England and Wales came from teachers and education workers in the year to 31 March 2023.
It marks a 16 per cent rise compared to the previous year and the highest proportion since Prevent was established in 2007.
In total, there were 6,817 referrals to the counter-terror programme in England and Wales in the year to March, marking a 6 per cent rise since 2022. More than half of all referrals were for under-18s.
Jonathan Hall KC, the independent reviewer of terrorism legislation, told i the steep rise in referrals through the education sector and the “strange” types of extremism flagged reflected the growing problem of online radicalisation.
Those showing “vulnerabilities” but with no clear ideology or terror risk made up the highest proportion of people referred to the scheme last year, with 2,505 flagged under the category – around 37 per cent of all cases.
For the second year running, those showing signs of extreme right-wing ideology vastly eclipsed the number of individuals referred to Prevent over concerns over Islamist extremism.
Far-right referrals were the second most common type of referrals with 1,310 cases, while those with “conflicted” extremist views were the third-largest category with 1,214 referrals. Referrals for Islamist extremism were significantly lower, with 781 cases in the year to 31 March.
“The strong likelihood is that very many referrals derive from online radicalisation, because the nature of the referrals is so strange,” Mr Hall told i.
