How did a 16-year-old boy become radicalised through ISIS-themed Roblox servers?

By Alma Fabiani

Published Feb 26, 2023 at 09:15 AM

Reading time: 2 minutes

41464

If you search Roblox on Google, among other queries featured in the search engine’s ‘People also ask’ category, you’ll find one result at the top that reads: “Is Roblox appropriate for a 7-year-old?” Far be it from me to present myself as a gaming expert, but up until today, I would have probably answered this question affirmatively. How naive I was.

To put it simply, Roblox is an online game platform and game creation system that allows users to play creations made by its community. Within these, players can also chat with each other, which I should probably have spotted as the game’s first red flag considering that over half of the platform’s users are under the age of 13. Online unfiltered socialising for underage individuals? Rarely a good thing. But wait, it gets worse.

A 16-year-old Singaporean boy has been detained by the country’s authorities under strict new terror laws after he was found to have been playing on “multiple Islamic State-themed servers on Roblox.” The teenager, who retains his anonymity because of the fact that he’s still a minor, “was issued with a restriction order in January, limiting his movements and preventing him from issuing public statements,” the South China Morning Post (SCMP) reported on Tuesday 21 February 2023.

While the restriction order was issued this year, it wasn’t the first time that the young boy had caught the attention of Singaporean authorities. In November 2020, when he was only 14 years old, the country’s Internal Security Department (ISD) decided to keep a close watch on the boy after it was discovered that he had been spending a worrying amount of time role-playing as an ISIS combatant on Roblox. It seems that his online radicalisation has only escalated over the past two and a half years.

Releasing a statement at the time, the ISD explained that the boy had used the social gaming platform to replicate ISIS conflict zones such as Syria and Marawi city in the southern Philippines, and regarded himself as an ISIS member after taking the ‘bai`ah’ (allegiance) to an in-game “ISIS leader.”

He played out his fantasies on the game, where he would shoot and kill enemies and undertake roles as the “spokesperson” and “chief propagandist” for his virtual ISIS faction, the ISD further revealed in its statement.

Things kept on escalating from there, with Channel News Asia (CNA) reporting that “the teen was also attracted to Islamic eschatological prophecies after watching YouTube videos and had come across Islamic State songs from online music streaming platforms.”

Like countless other young and impressionable individuals online, the boy was found to have “an interest in far-right extremist content, including those which were anti-semitic and supportive of neo-Nazi groups whose ideologies promoted a ‘race war’.”

The boy was also alleged to have been in contact with Muhammad Irfan Danyal Bin Mohamad Nor, an 18-year-old who was arrested in December 2022 under Singapore’s sweeping (and highly controversial) Internal Security Act (ISA) laws, which allow the government to imprison terror suspects for up to two years without trial. Irfan had been planning “to set up an Islamic caliphate on Singapore’s Coney Island.”

Another teenage boy—a 15-year-old who is the youngest person to be held under the country’s new law—has been detained since November 2022 after he was arrested for planning to carry out multiple knife attacks across Singapore.

The ISD also stated that the young boy even thought about beheading non-Muslims in popular tourist areas and becoming a suicide bomber. “At the point of his arrest, the youth was deeply entrenched in his radical views, but had yet to undertake any steps towards actualising his attack ideations,” it added.

According to the SCMP, a total of 11 people under the age of 21 have been punished under the ISA since 2015. Seven were detained and four given restriction orders.

Keep On Reading

By Charlie Sawyer

Emma Watson reveals disgusting paparazzi ambush on her 18th birthday

By Eliza Frost

Couples who meet online are less happy in love, new research finds

By Charlie Sawyer

UK women who miscarry could face home and phone searches following new anti-abortion police guidance

By Charlie Sawyer

Penn Badgley praised for opening up about fatherhood and raising sons on Call Her Daddy

By Charlie Sawyer

Former Harry Potter star tells reporters he doesn’t understand JK Rowling’s Twitter transphobia

By Eliza Frost

Why isn’t Sylvanian Drama posting on TikTok? Here’s the legal tea

By Eliza Frost

Kylie Jenner now follows Timothée Chalamet on Instagram, but he doesn’t follow her back

By Eliza Frost

Glen Powell’s GQ photoshoot is a satiric look at modern day males—and he’s in on the joke 

By Charlie Sawyer

Who is Zohran Mamdani, the staunch socialist primed to become New York’s first Muslim mayor?

By Eliza Frost

Hailey Bieber’s new hands-free lip tint holder has everyone divided 

By Charlie Sawyer

This Oscar-winning actor is the top pick to play Voldemort in HBO Max Harry Potter reboot

By Eliza Frost

Netflix’s Adolescence sweeps Emmys, with star Owen Cooper making history as youngest-ever male winner

By Eliza Frost

The Summer I Turned Pretty’s Chris Briney is at the centre of a new love triangle, but this time for an audio erotica story 

By Charlie Sawyer

Introducing Berlin’s latest tourist attraction Cybrothel, where men can request AI sex dolls covered in blood

By Eliza Frost

Will Belly choose herself in the final episodes of The Summer I Turned Pretty?

By Charlie Sawyer

What is Mar-a-Lago face? Unpacking the beauty trend prompted by Donald Trump’s second term

By Eliza Frost

How exactly is the UK government’s Online Safety Act keeping young people safe? 

By Charlie Sawyer

What is ketamine therapy, the psychiatric treatment healing famous Mormons Jen and Zac Affleck’s marriage?

By Eliza Frost

Bad Bunny is not touring the US due to fear of ICE raids at concerts

By Eliza Frost

Taylor Swift is engaged to the boy on the football team, Travis Kelce