Online radicalisation of young people is under scrutiny once more, as police weigh charges against a 14-year-old boy embroiled in a terrorism investigation after allegedly stabbing a university student with a kitchen knife.
Counter-terrorism police were called in after the incident at the University of Sydney on Tuesday, where the teen is accused of stabbing a 22-year-old man in the neck at the inner-city Camperdown campus about 8.30am.
The victim was rushed to nearby Royal Prince Alfred Hospital but has since been released.
The 14-year-old accused was arrested and charged with other offences in 2023 but ultimately had his case dismissed in court, NSW Police Minister Yasmin Catley revealed.
He had been engaging with a program run by the Community and Justice department, she told ABC News Breakfast.
“We have to make sure that we wrap services and support around these kids who are being radicalised online and their families,” Ms Catley said.
“To parents, to carers, if you’re a coach of a kid or if you’re their teacher, if you see behaviour that changes, then say something, come forward and let us know, because we cannot help if we do not know.”
The 14-year-old was arrested after attending the same hospital as the victim, where he was treated for cuts and underwent a mental health assessment.
Home Affairs Minister Clare O’Neil told Seven’s Sunrise program the incident had not yet been declared a terrorist incident and she couldn’t comment.
“However, I can tell you that we are seeing some really concerning trends in the presentation of terrorism in our country, and in fact these are global trends,” she said on Wednesday.
Young people becoming radicalised was particularly disturbing, and social media and technology was partially to blame, she said.
Responding to reports the teen had been in a deradicalisation program, Ms O’Neil said the Commonwealth funds the programs but states are responsible for running them, as different jurisdictions face different challenges.
“I’m confident these programs do have some effect, but we need to stay really focused on making sure that we’re attacking the problem with everything we’ve got,” Ms O’Neil said.
Police ruled out religion as a motivating factor behind the attack, instead blaming access to extreme violent content online for allegedly radicalising the teen.
NSW Police Assistant Commissioner Mark Walton said the teen’s ideology would likely be classed as “mixed and unclear”, as he put it: “the salad bar of ideologies”.
“A lot of these vulnerable people, they’re not linked to one particular ideology, they will move as they’re exposed to different things,” he said on Tuesday.
“It might be of white supremacist neo-Nazi, it can easily flip into a religious ideation, it’s a very complex environment that some of these vulnerable people are engaged in, not a linear position.”
A university spokeswoman said staff were working with authorities and there might be an increased security and police presence on campus while investigations continued.
