The secret online network that’s now ‘one of the biggest criminal threats’ to the UK

LBC can reveal that more than 100 investigations in the UK have been opened into a ‘twisted’ online network of teenage boys, who are making a game of coercing victims as young as nine into self-harm.

The UK's National Crime Agency (NCA) has raised concerns about so-called Com - short for community - networks, describing them as one of the country’s biggest criminal threats; second only to the small boats crisis.

The network is a series of group chats which recruit members and encourage them to commit crimes, in return for notoriety, or clout.

Cases in the UK have increased fivefold since 2023, driven by members across the English-speaking world.

It has prompted the NCA to join forces with the world’s most powerful intelligence agency, the FBI, to try and make sense of and tackle the growing and international threat.

A leading campaign group has told us new online safety laws in Britain are "poorly placed" to mitigate the harm Com groups cause, claiming their warnings to the Government over the past 18 months have "fallen on deaf ears".

To fully understand and explain the emerging online threat, over the past few months LBC has spoken to law enforcement agencies, researchers, charities and the parents of a young boy who tragically took his own life after being coerced.

What is ‘The Com’?

The Com has been described by experts as a “cluster of networks that emphasise and encourage extremely harmful, high risk and antisocial behaviour that targets young and vulnerable people”.

The worldwide groups often recruit members into their chats from social media sites and gaming platforms and use a high volume of gory and sexualised material to desensitise children.

They glorify criminal acts and encourage members to commit their own, in order to move up the ranks, earn clout and gain notoriety among their peers.

“It’s all a game to them,” is how one expert described it, saying “they just want their name on the roster that’s sent around the group.”

Rob Richardson, deputy threat lead for child sexual abuse at the NCA, explained that the ‘tasks’ completed by members of the Com have been known to quickly escalate.

He told LBC: “These groups are involved in the sharing of child sexual abuse material, cyber-crime, the sharing of extreme right-wing terrorism material, coercing girls into self-harm, animal cruelty and in some extreme circumstances persuading girls to commit suicide.

An Ofcom spokesperson said: “We recognise the threats posed by Com networks, and are working closely with law enforcement on ways to tackle them.

“We’ve set out several specific ways platforms can protect UK users from the harms caused by these groups. This includes measures to tackle grooming, child sexual abuse material and hate speech, as well as ways to prevent children from encountering suicide and self-harm content, and protect them from misogynistic, violent, hateful or abusive material.

“We’re closely scrutinising tech firms’ compliance with their new duties under the Online Safety Act, which have come into force in the last six months, and we’ve already launched several investigations.”

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