{"id":88999,"date":"2025-09-27T14:28:10","date_gmt":"2025-09-27T14:28:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/88999\/"},"modified":"2025-09-27T14:28:10","modified_gmt":"2025-09-27T14:28:10","slug":"garda-commissioner-warns-children-being-lured-into-crime-through-social-media-and-online-gaming","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/88999\/","title":{"rendered":"Garda Commissioner warns children being lured into crime through social media and online gaming"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>More than 400 police chiefs, including Garda Commissioner Justin Kelly, have warned that children are being &#8220;increasingly targeted and lured&#8221; through social media and online gaming into criminality.<\/p>\n<p>At a gathering at the headquarters of the EU police agency, Europol, police bosses from 53 countries and 13 international organisations called for \u201cstronger preventative measures\u201d to protect young people.<\/p>\n<p class=\"\">Mr Kelly, who started in the job this month, was among those attending the European Police Chiefs Convention (EPCC) 2025 at the Hague, in the Netherlands.<\/p>\n<p class=\"\">Catherine De Bolle, Europol executive director, told attendees: \u201cThe social and economic costs of organised crime are simply too high, so politically, economically, and socially damaging that no single country or organisation, however powerful, can confront them alone.<\/p>\n<p class=\"\">\u201cThat is why the law enforcement community must redouble its efforts to modernise, strengthen, and deepen international police co-operation.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n<p class=\"\">Two panels, building on expert workshops held prior, highlighted how criminals are exploiting digital technologies in both violent and financial crime, and suggested how these threats could be addressed internationally.<\/p>\n<p class=\"\">In a Europol statement, the police chiefs said that minors were \u201cincreasingly drawn into criminal networks\u201d.<\/p>\n<p class=\"\">It said: \u201cLaw enforcement experts warned that minors are increasingly targeted and lured through online gaming, social media, and encrypted channels. The phenomenon includes Violence-as-a-Service, where acts of intimidation or assault can be contracted online.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n<p class=\"\">This phenomenon has emerged, in particular, in many of the Nordic countries as well as Netherlands and Belgium, with Germany and France also affected.<\/p>\n<p class=\"\">The statement said police chiefs emphasised the need for:<\/p>\n<ul class=\"listbullet\">\n<li>Centralised, specialised investigative structures to track recruiters, brokers, and enablers across borders;<\/li>\n<li>Stronger preventive measures to protect vulnerable youths online, including awareness campaigns, school engagement, and ethical guidance in digital spaces;<\/li>\n<li>Enhanced international co-operation and data sharing, supported by AI and data science, to identify criminal networks faster;<\/li>\n<li>Regulatory obligation for gaming platforms and social media to prevent harmful content involving minors, and to impose a minimum age for admission to risk-associated platforms and to co-operate with law enforcement when necessary.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p class=\"\">A second panel examined how organised crime was exploiting digital financial services, such as virtual IBANs, decentralised finance platforms, crypto assets and fintech tools.<\/p>\n<p class=\"\">It said key challenges include how criminal techniques were \u201coutpacing\u201d law enforcement\u2019s capacity to investigate. There was also a \u201cshortage of specialists and high-cost investigative tools\u201d for blockchain and crypto tracing.<\/p>\n<p class=\"\">The statement said police chiefs discussed practical solutions, such as:<\/p>\n<ul class=\"listbullet\">\n<li>Expanding joint investigative \u201csprints\u201d to trace and seize criminal assets across borders;<\/li>\n<li>Pooling resources for specialised investigative tools for crypto and blockchain analysis, as well as boosting investment in training;<\/li>\n<li>Treating money laundering as a standalone criminal offence to speed prosecutions, accepting reasonably suspicion of the provenance of the funds;<\/li>\n<li>Strengthening public\u2013private partnerships to improve information sharing and early warning systems.<\/li>\n<li>Strengthening Europe\u2019s security architecture<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"More than 400 police chiefs, including Garda Commissioner Justin Kelly, have warned that children are being &#8220;increasingly targeted&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":89000,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[41],"tags":[9,10,715,13,14,11167,6,11,12,15,16,5,42652,7,8,65,66,67],"class_list":{"0":"post-88999","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world","8":"tag-breaking-news","9":"tag-breakingnews","10":"tag-crime","11":"tag-featured-news","12":"tag-featurednews","13":"tag-gardai","14":"tag-headlines","15":"tag-latest-news","16":"tag-latestnews","17":"tag-main-news","18":"tag-mainnews","19":"tag-news","20":"tag-sexual-abuse","21":"tag-top-stories","22":"tag-topstories","23":"tag-world","24":"tag-world-news","25":"tag-worldnews"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/88999","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=88999"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/88999\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/89000"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=88999"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=88999"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=88999"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}