Forum: A lonely young person is easy prey for online radicalisation

The article

“Virtual world can be a gateway to radicalisation for lonely youth: Faishal Ibrahim”

(Nov 29) is yet another reminder: a teenager radicalised online, a chatbot used to create extremist pledges, gaming platforms turned into recruitment grounds. And at the centre of it all, a young person who felt alone.

Senior Minister of State Muhammad Faishal Ibrahim is right: the virtual world is now the front line. But radicalisation is being treated as a digital problem when it is fundamentally a human one. Extremists are not hunting for believers. They are hunting for the lonely.

If a young person feels unseen at home, unheard in school, and unanchored in real life, it takes very little for an online stranger to fill that void. By the time parents notice, the damage is done. Radicalisation today does not require secret meetings or overseas travel. It requires nothing more than a teenager, the internet and a sense of emptiness.

We can keep blaming apps, platforms and algorithms, but while a lonely young person is easy prey, one who feels valued is hard to radicalise.

Singapore needs to take emotional isolation as seriously as it takes cyberthreats. Schools must pick up early signs of withdrawal. Parents must stop assuming that “quiet” means “fine”. And community groups must offer real spaces where the young can build identity, resilience and belonging.

We cannot keep reacting after an arrest is made. By then, we have already lost the young person to someone who offered him attention first.

Irwan Jamil