The Age today carries an article by David Swan, “Radicalisation rise of the ‘terminaly online’ generation“. The article discusses the online radicalisation and how it ensnares young people. For many of these people the online world has become so dominant in their lives it has pushes real world connections, engagement and norms to second place. The article includes comments from interviews with Matthew Quinn who heads the Online Hate Prevention Institute’s deradicalisation project Exit Australia and Dr Andre Oboler, CEO of the Online Hate Prevention Institute.
In opening the article David Swan explains: “Tyler Robinson was 22 when he allegedly walked into a Turning Point USA event at Utah Valley University on September 10, 2025, and shot Charlie Kirk dead. His case is now emerging as an example of how, when offline structures unravel and online life fills the gap, radicalisation can hide in plain sight.”
Swan interviews Matthew Quinn drawing on Matthew’s inside knowledge as someone who used to be a white supremacist gang leader when he was a teenager. Matthew explained how far-right recruiters go on whatever platforms young people are using and make use of memes and inside jokes to get people to engage, before gradually escalating the content.
Swan further explored this with Dr Oboler who told him, “People are getting into communities, echo chambers where claims may or may not be true, and they’re being used to rile up emotions. People find belonging, and it bounces off each other, getting more and more extreme.” He added, “There’s a growing lack of faith in governments, in the system, and in laws, that people feel like they can just take the law into their own hands. I think that starts as a feeling online of ‘I can do what I like’, and then some of that gets carried into the real world, where it turns into violence”.
Dr Oboler called for more resources for eSafety to address what is occuring online saying, “There needs to be a deputy commissioner or someone who is specifically dealing with these issues of extremism and hate speech online”. He added “The main difference between us and the US really is about access to guns. After Port Arthur, the gun buyback and restrictions reduced firearms in the community. That is the deciding factor that makes Australia safer than the US.”
The article: David Swan, “Radicalisation rise of the ‘terminaly online’ generation“, The Age, 22 September 2025. P. 26-27.