A second teenager in Alberta has been arrested and charged with crimes connected to an online youth recruitment group that’s listed as a terrorist entity in Canada.
A 17-year-old from Lethbridge was arrested on Sept. 3 in the southern Alberta city and accused of committing crimes relating to terrorism, child sexual abuse and exploitation material (CSAEM), and animal cruelty.
RCMP allege the teen, whose gender was not disclosed, was involved in the 764 network: an online group that recruits children and youth via gaming platforms and social media networks and grooms them to commit heinous crimes.
What is the 764 network?
The 764 network, which was listed as a terrorist entity in Canada in December 2025, is described as a transnational online ecosystem of violent predators with a shared ideology, not an organized crime group with central leadership.
“It is a network of transnational actors operating in multiple jurisdictions whose explicit goal is nihilism or valuelessness or normlessness,” said Temitope Oriola, a University of Alberta professor of criminology and sociology.
“They have a devotion to a pathological hatred of humanity.”
According to police, the 764 network targets children and teens through social media platforms like TikTok, Instagram and Snapchat; messaging apps such as Discord, Twitch and Telegram; along with popular online gaming platforms like Roblox, Steam and Minecraft.
Elements of the 764 network are known to have extreme ideological views and victimize children through desensitizing and radicalizing them to violence.
They spread propaganda and encourage violent acts both online and offline.
“The explicit goal of 764 and similar networks is simply violence for the sake of violence, based on the hatred of humanity and hatred of society,” Oriola explained.
“For these individuals, violence becomes not a means to an end necessarily — but an end in and of itself.”
Predators with the 764 network routinely lure youth, particularly those in vulnerable sectors, and encourage them to commit sexual acts, child sexual abuse and exploitation, self-harm, and animal torture.
“They encourage members to self-harm and record their self-harms. They encourage killing the family cat, for example, or nearby cats and dogs and to film those. And, of course, they’re also involving varying degrees of sextortion – essentially blackmailing young people with asking for nudes and so forth,” Oriola said.
RCMP said victims have also been pressured to write messages in blood and/or carve names or online handles into their skin or that of another youth, pet or animal.
It’s a cyclical system: RCMP say recruiters are themselves often youth or young adults, who may have been first victimized and exploited by an existing member, and then extorted or pressured into finding a victim of their own.
“This has been driven by relatively young individuals,” Oriola said.
Because they are also youth, RCMP said kids are more likely to trust them.
764 network came to prominence in recent years
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While youth have been recruited for nefarious reasons for decades, RCMP said the current trends associated with the 764 network started appearing in earnest about three years ago.
“We have seen a massive spike in these types of investigations, specifically related to the 764 space or nihilistic violent extremism — which was actually a term originally coined by the FBI,” said Supt. Matt Johnson, the officer in charge of the RCMP federal policing northwest region’s Integrated National Security Enforcement Team (INSET).
The FBI has been conducting hundreds of investigations tied to 764, ABC News reported last year.
Johnson said police in Canada began to notice trends in cases that historically would have been viewed through a mental health or child-luring lens.
“Traditional child exploitation files, where somebody was being groomed or abused, but we started picking up these ideological undercurrents —particularly, heinous acts of violence that were being associated with them.”
The youth victim age range is as young as 10 to 14.
Experts say the predators first gain the youth’s trust, then exploit them.
Both Johnson and Oriola said 764 recruiters, in particular, look to target youth with certain vulnerabilities that can be exploited or manipulated, such as:
- Neurodivergence
- Gender identity concerns
- Body dysmorphia
- Eating disorders
- Mental health concerns such as depression, anxiety or other disorders
- Socially isolation
- Coming from homes or families experiencing divorce or strife
- Youths whose online activity is not closely monitored
The grooming often starts in public chat spaces, police said, before moving to direct messages.
“People who are additionally isolated, especially as children, and are particularly susceptible to individuals who target them with feelings of like what you’d call ‘love bombing’ — providing a sense of belonging — and then extracting them from that larger online group into private digital messaging, when that traditional extortion-type behaviours begin,” Johnson said.
The internet knows no borders, making the 764 network an international issue for law enforcement.
“We are working daily with local municipal, provincial, other federal partners, and our international partners in order to track, divert, and charge when we can suspects that are identified, as well as identifying victims,” Johnson said.
2nd Alberta youth arrested in connection with 764
Another Alberta teenager was arrested last year in connection with the group.
Mounties allege a 15-year-old from the Edmonton area was planning to commit offences related to the 764 network.
The latest case came after the Lethbridge Police Service passed on a tip to the RCMP.
INSET said it looked into a user on the Discord messaging platform, who RCMP allege was affiliated with the online group involved in ideologically motivated violent extremism.
Investigators determined that the user’s online activity was consistent with that of the 764 network.
Police would not say on Monday when their investigation in Lethbridge began or release details on what the southern Alberta teen is alleged to have done to warrant the charges.
The youth in the Lethbridge case was charged with several Criminal Code violations, including:
- Participation in activity of terrorist group, facilitating terrorist activity, commission of offence for a terrorist group
- Possession and distribution of child sexual abuse and exploitation material (previously called child pornography)
- Causing unnecessary suffering to an animal
The teenager, who can’t be identified due to the Youth Criminal Justice Act, is scheduled to appear at the Lethbridge Alberta Court of Justice on Oct. 14.
Because the criminal investigation is ongoing and before the courts, the RCMP would not share any other details on the case.
What should adults watch out for and how can they help?
The RCMP urges parents to be vigilant about their children’s online activity and to report any suspicious behaviour — which can include teens using mobile apps such as Discord, Telegram or other encrypted platforms that prevent parental visibility, and hiding it from the adults in their life.
Other signs include dropping grades in school, spending more time online, being excessively moody and on edge, or becoming more isolated or withdrawn, and pets going missing or becoming uncharacteristically avoidant or fearful.
Police said recruited teens may also have a new interest in questioning or rejecting moral constraints, gore content, depictions of violence, terrorist propaganda, or occult imagery.
In a notice about violent groups exploiting children, the RCMP also said to watch for youth covering their skin in unusual ways, or going through more bandages or showing evidence of cuts or carvings on their skin.
A challenge adults face: experts say recruiters will teach young kids not to talk to adults or how to hide their activities.
“Having good digital literacy as an adult caregiver, knowing what your children are doing online, monitoring who they are engaged with, what they are doing, being actively involved, that is a huge part of risk mitigation for this environment,” Johnson said.
“Because the victims we’re seeing essentially have very limited supervision — very limited awareness of the people around them, what they’re doing online and who they’re engaging with.”
RCMP said it’s critical that parents and caregivers:
- Monitor online activities
- Promote online safety practices
- Maintain open communication about the dangers that exist online
- Become familiar with the apps and platforms your children are using
- Foster an open dialogue and empower your child to approach you in the event they or someone they know are being targeted or victimized
- Never judge; approach situations calmly, with support and understanding
- Use community resources if you suspect something is going on with your child, whether that be through school, family physicians, community groups, or your local police
If you believe someone is in immediate danger, please call 911.
