Children are being recruited online to commit serious offences for organised crime gangs, with some paid less than $200 for dangerous attacks.
The Australian Criminal Intelligence Commission (ACIC) is warning of an explosion in the use of encrypted apps and social media to recruit young people for offences ranging from arson to murder, sometimes with cash bonuses if crimes are filmed.
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ACIC deputy CEO Adam Meyer told Sunrise payments can be as little as hundreds of dollars, with criminal networks sometimes paying even less than promised.
“A situation with a firebombing not too long ago where kids were offered $500 to do it, they undertook the attack and then they ended up being paid less than $200 for what was a pretty dangerous activity,” he said.
“When these young people are being engaged, we get into bidding wars where they try to offer lower and lower fees to undercut each other.
“It’s a race to the bottom. Eventually what the criminal networks pay is a very, very small amount indeed.”
Airtasker for criminals Meyer said encrypted messaging apps and social media platforms allowed organised crime networks to reach large numbers of potential recruits quickly, including young people who might otherwise have no connection to the criminal underworld.
“It allows them to run a range of jobs concurrently. So, from a business model perspective, it’s very efficient and it allows them to undertake quite a large amount of crime in a very short period of time,” he said.
The recruitment model allows those directing the crimes to distance themselves from the offences, while using young people to carry out the dangerous work.
Meyer said recruits were often unaware of the broader criminal networks behind the assignments or the risks they were taking.
ACIC deputy CEO Adam Meyer said recruits were often unaware of the broader criminal networks behind the assignments or the risks they were taking. Credit: Sunrise Children exploited as ‘cheap and expendable labour’
Meyer has previously described the growing use of children as a particular concern for authorities, with some as young as 13 entering the criminal pathway.
He said major organised crime groups were increasingly turning to a model known as “crime-as-a-service”, outsourcing offences to people willing to carry them out for payment.
He said the groups viewed young recruits as “cheap and expendable labour, cannon fodder”, with promises of money and status often failing to materialise.
But Meyer warned the young offenders could be left facing serious consequences once they were no longer useful to the networks.
“In most of these cases, they’re either going to get arrested, they’re either going to harm themselves in the activity, or they are going to get harmed post-activity by the people they’ve actually undertaken the activity against,” he said.
Encrypted apps and social media are increasingly being used to recruit young people for offences ranging from arson to murder. Credit: Sunrise Authorities race to dismantle networks Meyer said authorities were working to dismantle the networks, arrest those involved, and disrupt the intermediaries responsible for organising the crimes.
ACIC was also working with technology platforms to identify and prevent criminal activity being facilitated online.
But he said educating young people about the people recruiting them was just as important.
“It’s really critical as well that our young people understand that the organised crime networks who are tasking them to do this are not their friends,” he said.
“They have not got their best interests at heart. They are simply exploiting them to undertake their own dirty work.
“As soon as the criminal networks no longer require them, they’ll disconnect with them and leave them to fend for themselves.”