What is the 764 terrorist group targeting kids, and how can we keep young people safe?

A Quebec man was charged last week for allegedly promoting 764, an online extremist network that experts say is increasingly targeting and exploiting young people around the world.

The group, described by the Canadian government as a “transnational network of online nihilistic violent extremists,” was added to the country’s list of terrorist entities in late 2025. Those familiar with it note that it’s growing, and it’s dangerous — but there are ways to help keep children and teenagers safe.

“First, (parents and teachers) should know that kids are not safe online,” said child psychiatrist Dr. Cécile Rousseau, a professor and the director of the division of child and adolescent psychiatry at McGill University. “It’s not less dangerous than being in the street at night.”

The beliefs of 764’s members involve misanthropy (hatred of the human race) and nihilism (the rejection of religious, moral and social values). It’s part of a wider online ecosystem known as The Com, explained Mackenzie Hart, PhD candidate at Simon Fraser University’s School of Criminology and co-ordinator of the Canadian Network for Research on Security, Extremism and Society.

“It’s all done with this sort of desire to bring about or accelerate the collapse of society or social instability in general,” she said, adding that the network glorifies violence that is “both interpersonal and self-directed.”

The 764 network is known specifically for the radicalization and victimization of children and teens, Hart said. Members target youth through platforms like Telegram, Discord, Roblox, Minecraft and Twitch, where they lure, groom, and extort them to commit violent and sexual acts.

“First they will target isolated, depressed or anxious kids, make them feel good, make them their friend, ask for photos, warp the photos with AI to compromise them or ask them things that compromise them,” said Rousseau, who is also part of a specialized clinical group in Quebec addressing violent extremism. “Then they threaten them, they victimize them, and then they ask them to do criminal stuff.”

Rousseau said they prioritize vulnerable youth such as those with eating disorders or suicidal thoughts and those who self-harm.

“And just like in prison, they teach them … not to talk with psychologists, not to disclose anything with their parents,” she said. “There’s a law of silence, which makes it very difficult to reach.”

The Canadian government explains that 764 members provide instructions on how to avoid detection, and that the group has “increasingly focused on encouraging offline acts of violence.”

The Quebec man charged Wednesday allegedly promoted the group’s ideology through Telegram, publishing disturbing material meant to inspire and recruit others. The content is believed to have been aimed primarily at teens.

“It’s a case of an adult who manipulated, involved and recruited youth — and that can happen,” Rousseau said, but “it’s also peer to peer.”

“Youth as young as 12 can push other kids — even younger — to kill or to harm,” she said.

“There’s a huge victim-perpetrator overlap in this sphere,” Hart added, explaining that youth will ask others to share explicit videos of themselves committing crimes or sexual acts in order to be granted access to 764 spaces.

“It’s kind of like a clout-chasing group in that you get access by sharing this content, and then once you’re in it, you get more clout or power or status … by continuing to produce this content,” she said. “That’s where the children get kind of stuck.”

It’s hard to say when exactly the phenomenon began, in part because the group’s methods “change all the time,” Hart said.

She added that it’s happening all over the world, “which makes this even more confusing and hard to pin down.”

When Canada listed 764 as a terrorist entity, it made note of three recent incidents around the world. The first involved a minor from Alberta, who was charged with offences such as child pornography and explosives-related crimes in 2024. The second example was of a minor who attacked a woman with a knife in Sweden in 2025. Lastly, a minor pleaded guilty to encouraging suicide, possessing a terrorism manual and possessing child sexual abuse material in the United Kingdom in 2025. In a CTV News article last week, a father from British Columbia said his daughter died by suicide days before her 16th birthday in 2025 after being groomed through the 764 network.

Rousseau said she first heard about 764 in the western provinces and that it’s been in Quebec for the past few years.

Speaking about youth culture more broadly, Rousseau said there’s been a growing fascination with violence, which she sees in part as a reaction to the “sanitization of childhood,” or efforts to shield children from the evils of the world.

“A bit as a reaction to this … you see now, in youth, a fascination for evil, demons, violence, mass killers, school shooters — you know, glorification of violence,” she said. “That’s a broad phenomenon.”

The increased accessibility of graphic content online can contribute to desensitization, Rousseau explained.

“It’s not new. That has been slowly building up I would say in the last 20 years,” she said. “What’s new is the extent to which young people have been online” and the way some platforms have become echo chambers “vis-à-vis this fascination with violence.”

At the same time, she pointed out that exposure to violent content doesn’t directly translate to real-world behaviour.

“But it’s the global landscape — and it’s important, because in terms of primary prevention, we also have to address that,” Rousseau said.

Online groups are exploiting the current environment to target and manipulate vulnerable youth into networks like 764.

What should parents and teachers know?

Limit screen time, tell children and teens that not everyone can be trusted online, and ask questions about who they’re talking to and what about, Rousseau said.

“Be very attentive,” she said. “Not in a controlling way — really express a genuine interest, and when something is scary or iffy … ask questions rather than becoming distrustful or controlling, because otherwise the youth just close off. And that makes them much more vulnerable to these predators.”

Children should feel like they won’t get in trouble if they disclose something, she added, noting it can take time before they open up.

“At the beginning, usually they deny,” she said. “It’s the idea of being attentive, warm, reassuring to the kids, so that they feel that there is an alternative, there is a way out.”

More broadly, it’s also important to have conversations about the state of the world.

“How do we provide space to discuss what’s going on in the world for kids, which leads them to critical thinking?” Rousseau said. “It’s very important to have this difficult discussion.”

Red-flag behaviour

Isolation is a big red flag, Rousseau said.

“Kids who isolate socially begin refusing going to school, stop seeing their friends, stop spending time with family — all these are signs that something is not going well,” she said. 

That doesn’t necessarily mean they’re involved with dangerous groups, but those who prefer online life to real life “also legitimate more violence,” Rousseau said.

“It’s not so much the amount of time they spend online, but the fact that they prefer life online. Those are warning signs.”

If that happens, try to bring them back into real life.

“And also ask, but in a gentle way: ‘Are you seeing things that make you scared, or do you have questions?'” Rousseau said.

Hart said to look out for a sudden increase in time spent online.

She also said to be attentive and ask questions if the child or teen mentions making a new friend on the internet.

“That’s always a classic one of something that we’ve been told to worry about,” Hart said. “But particularly in this context. Even a friend of the same age.”

Behavioural changes or unexplained injuries to themselves or family pets would also be red flags, she said.

Rousseau pointed out that there are professional resources if support is needed — “but we don’t want to disempower parents,” she said. “They can do a lot.”

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