Newly listed terror organisation preying on ‘teenage boys’

Terrorgram is a collective that promotes white supremacist violence on encrypted social media platforms, such as Telegram.

The Albanese government this week formally listed it as a terrorist organisation, with anyone found guilty of being involved with it facing up to 25 years behind bars.

Mr Burke said on Sunday Terrorgram poses a “real” threat of radicalisation to young Australians.

Home Affairs Minister Tony Burke says ‘teenage boys’ are particularly vulnerable to radicalisation. Picture: Martin Ollman / NewsWire

“This is a new form of risk,” he told Sky News.

“So effectively, now we have a disproportionate number, and if you look at where the increase is happening, is fastest – it’s teenage boys.”

Mr Burke said contact is usually made through online gaming platforms.

“They’ll be playing with somebody who they’ve never met, who they presume is someone of their own age,” he said.

“They’ll feel that they’re building a relationship, and then that person will start to gradually try to take them down a pathway.

Mr Burke said he was “not talking huge numbers” but that “you don’t need huge numbers” to deal with a risk to civilians.

“This is a growing form of terrorism,” he said.

Home Affairs has linked Terrorgram to the radicalisation of Jordan Patten, who was charged with attempting to commit a terrorist act last year.

Mr Patten was allegedly plotting to kill NSW state Labor MP Tim Crakanthorp.

He was a block away from Mr Crakanthorp’s office in Newcastle when police arrested him.

Australia’s domestic intelligence agency last year raised the terror threat to “probable” because of deteriorating social cohesion and a spike in radicalisation among young men.

The agency’s chief, Mike Burgess, warned at the time people were becoming radicalised for increasingly complicated and varied reasons and that ideologies were blending.

It was the first hike in a decade.

Both the UK and the US have also proscribed Terrorgram a terrorist organisation.