Norwegian counterintelligence PST reports teenagers’ radicalization through violence — Interia

Norwegian counterintelligence service PST has stated that ideology is becoming increasingly less important among radicalized minors, while fascination with violence is becoming a central element of the process. PST chief Beate Gangås said this during the Warsaw Security Forum in Warsaw, Interia reports.

Violence without ideological affiliation

According to Gangås, Norwegian services have for several years been monitoring minors who become radicalized through online content. It is becoming increasingly difficult to clearly classify such young people as belonging to the far-right milieu or Islamist extremism.

The head of PST noted that some teenagers are fascinated by brutality rather than political or religious agendas and may view violence as an end in itself. She also stressed that young people find violent material and people with similar interests online without the involvement of adults or organized groups.

The internet and police data

In Gangås’s view, online platform algorithms are increasingly offering teenagers more violent content. She raised the question of whether constantly viewing such materials lowers the barrier to accepting violence.

More current news is available on the UA.News Telegram channel Telegram.

The Norwegian police unit Kripos reported that boys aged 15 to 17 are radicalized most often. Services are currently handling around 80 such cases, with PST involved in some of them. Gangås added that the online community of young people inclined toward violent acts has no state borders.

Observations in Poland

According to Interia, similar conclusions are contained in a 2024–2025 report by Poland’s Internal Security Agency. Its authors noted that young people’s extreme behavior is rarely driven by a specific ideology and is increasingly linked to fascination with violence, mass killings, and the brutal activities of terrorist structures.

In the study “Youth Diagnosis 2026,” prepared at the request of Poland’s Ministry of National Education, 47% of teenagers aged 13–16 said they encounter harmful content online. Another 35% of students aged 15–19, according to the study, resort to violence against their peers.