25/09/2026
Interview taken from Moneyweb@midday podcast.
Link at bottom of page.
What happened to Wang Wang is an example of how children are becoming participants in these networks. Is this the world you want your children growing up in?
*How 764 targets children*
‘What parents should really be concerned about is that every child, if they have access to the internet, could potentially be vulnerable to being exploited by groups such as the 764,’ says Isel van Zyl of the Avert Research Network.
Jeremy Maggs · 23 Sep 2026, 15:06
JEREMY MAGGS: A disturbing form of online extremism has now reached South Africa, one in which violence apparently needs no political or religious cause at all. Children are being drawn into online communities where humiliation, self-harm, sexual exploitation and even cruelty can become a form of social currency.
A 16-year-old in the Western Cape was arrested in August after police reportedly linked him to the international online network. It’s known as 764.
So what exactly are we dealing with here and how do parents even begin to recognise it?
Isel van Zyl is co-ordinator of the Avert (Addressing Violent Extremism and Radicalisation to Terrorism) Research Network at Deakin University in Australia.
Isel, what exactly, then, is nihilistic violent extremism and why are we regarding it as extremism rather than simple, horrific online criminality?
ISEL VAN ZYL: Thanks, Jeremy. Nihilistic violent extremism (NVE) has no ideology, political motivation or agenda.
It looks different from normal terrorism, if you take Al-Qaeda’s attacks on 9/11 in the US 25 years ago, their ideology was coherent – a specific religious and political grievance, a demand and a vision of what should replace it.
You could sit down with a member and they could explain exactly what they wanted and why.
NVE has nothing of that scaffolding. There’s no religion, no politics and no demand that government could ever meet.
What parents should really be concerned about is that every child, if they have access to the internet, could potentially be vulnerable to being exploited by groups such as 764.
JEREMY MAGGS: So if there is no political cause, as you’re telling me, or religion, belief or even coherent ideology, explain to me what is actually motivating these young people then.
ISEL VAN ZYL: That’s a good question. I have to say, Jeremy, that there is a big question in Australia and in the US around whether this is terrorism or if it is just crime with extra steps. Researchers actually disagree on that.
Sextortion, child abuse material and threats are already serious crimes on their own, and you don’t need to call something terrorism to be able to prosecute it.
So Europol (European Union Agency for Law Enforcement Cooperation) itself doesn’t officially track NVE as a category because these acts can fall under either ordinary criminality or terrorism, depending on how you look at them.
Some researchers warn that stretching the terrorism label too far risks two things: treating children who are themselves being coerced as hardened terrorists and missing what’s actually distinctive here, that’s driven by online status seeking. It’s not belief.
JEREMY MAGGS: So if it’s online status seeking, are you telling me the more shocking the act of cruelty is, the greater your standing would be?
ISEL VAN ZYL: Exactly. The fact that these groups like the 764 and The Com basically feed into gamification.
They know that children like games. Kids growing up in this generation have access to a phone from very early on. Anything is gamified.
So if you can gamify cruelty and you can gamify status, basically that is the same part in the brain that gets highlighted, that gets fed. Whether it is cruelty or whether it’s winning a prize because you spelt a word correctly. So unfortunately, they’re feeding on that.
JEREMY MAGGS: Could you give me a sense of progression? How does an apparently ordinary conversation then, as you’ve suggested on gaming or on a social media platform, progressed then to sextortion, self-harm and ultimately violence?
ISEL VAN ZYL: Jeremy, I think kids are really struggling currently, I think a lot of kids are looking for a community. They’re looking for identity.
If you look at teenagers and if you ask anyone, as a teenager, the one thing that we all do is search for meaning and search for identity. So that should not be vilified. That is something that comes very naturally.
So I think a lot of times you connect with people who seem to share the same interest, to share the same music taste, and that is built as a friendship or as a relationship.
This is actually where we can learn from general terrorism studies, is when you are a someone who is a recruiter or radicalises people online, you approach them from a place of love and they get comfort.
So basically, these conversations and these connections start as friendship based. People feel comforted. People feel like they have identity. People feel like they belong.
Obviously then something turns within those groups, and they’re asked to participate in this game where they have to either hurt themselves or hurt other people or animals.
JEREMY MAGGS: It’s a difficult complication, if I’m hearing you correctly, because a child being coerced today can be pressured into coercing somebody else tomorrow. So, Isel, at what point does a victim then become a perpetrator?
ISEL VAN ZYL: I think once there is compromising material of that child or of that young person online. Because I think if you go to any child, let’s use our common sense, if you go to any child right now and say you need to hurt a kitten, or you need to hurt your brother, or you need to hurt yourself, I think the first reaction would be no.
But if you say, do you remember you shared this secret with me, or you shared this compromising photo of yourself with me, I will now use that to blackmail you so you will hurt yourself or someone else, or an animal.
So that is how I think you’re coerced into either hurting someone else or it is part of the game. So you become not addicted, but you come obsessed with winning and winning points in this game that I think the idea of hurting someone, or hurting yourself doesn’t seem that bad.
JEREMY MAGGS: Violence becoming effectively gamified. As I referenced, Isel, we’ve seen a 16-year-old arrested in the Western Cape reportedly linked to the 764 network. What does that case tell us about how established this phenomenon may already be in South Africa?
ISEL VAN ZYL: There are more than 200 arrests worldwide that have now been linked to the 764 alone, and it’s across 28 countries.
South Africa isn’t a strange exception. It’s just the latest country to show up on that list.
In the US, 764 was actually founded by a Texan teenager, Bradley Cadenhead, who is now serving an 80-year sentence. We have in Germany a 20-year-old, linked to the network, who is facing over 120 charges. In Sweden, we had a case where an older network figure blackmailed a 14-year-old into carrying out a stabbing in Stockholm.
So it’s taking place everywhere.
I think the reason why we’re not seeing more news articles on this issue is because people are still not sure how to categorise what’s happening.
So I think if a country doesn’t know how nihilistic violent extremism presents, people can just look at what just happened in the Western Cape and think it’s just normal criminality, but it’s not. It’s part of a bigger and more nefarious movement.
JEREMY MAGGS: Isel van Zyl, thank you very much indeed, co-ordinator of the Avert Research Network at Deakin University in Australia. I appreciate your time. Thank you.
‘What parents should really be concerned about is that every child, if they have access to the internet, could potentially be vulnerable to being exploited by groups such as the 764,’ says Isel van Zyl, co-ordinator of the Avert Research Network.
