Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/1547002
7 maltatoday | SUNDAY • 4 OCTOBER 2026 FEATURE How violent networks target children also the issue that some of the people who end up doing this started out as victims them- selves," Zammit says. What the network gets out of it 764 is a group within The Com, a wider online network short for The Community. Eu- ropol's Project COMPASS links 764 particularly to grooming, recruitment and violence. The wider Com comprises in- terconnected groups involved in hacking, theft, extortion, child sexual abuse material and physical violence, according to the American FBI. Participants may belong to multiple groups, with differing interests. Europol's 2026 Internet Or- ganised Crime Threat Assess- ment says offenders approach children on gaming platforms and online spaces where young people share personal difficul- ties. They use sensitive infor- mation or images to demand sexual material or violent re- cordings. Moving between platforms and encrypted chan- nels makes these networks harder to investigate. For some, circulating the abuse brings standing among other participants. Canadian police describe images and vid- eos being shared to gain noto- riety within the network. Zammit compares this to gaming's point systems. In some groups, acts of harm can serve as entry requirements, while recordings are shared to demonstrate what someone has done and gain credibility within the hierarchy or wider group. He uses nihilist violent ex- tremism— a desire to cause chaos and destroy society—as an umbrella term. Motives vary, and not every- one in violent online networks is driven by nihilistic violent extremism. Others seek sexual gratification, status or belong- ing. Zammit describes no single organisation with fixed mem- bership. Smaller groups can form around the same name, with different people involved. That causes headaches to in- vestigators, who have to exam- ine participation in groups, ter- minology and determine how people join. The investigation must establish the nature of the connection. What police can see The unit assesses people who may warrant attention, consid- ering factors such as violent history, weapon access and concerning behaviour, within legal limits. Zammit stresses that being a subject of interest does not mean someone is a terrorist. Concerns may also come through schools and social wel- fare services. School staff can report unusual behaviour, al- lowing police to decide wheth- er checks or intervention are needed, Zammit says. He declines to give a figure for the number of investigations in Malta but describes success- ful interventions that did not reach court. In some circum- stances, the person's age influ- enced the response; in others, police considered a different intervention more appropriate. Information also arrives from Europol and overseas coun- terparts. A foreign investiga- tion may produce names or usernames that Malta keeps for future reference, or a more specific request asking wheth- er local investigators have en- countered someone suspected of extortion. Police process retained in- formation to identify possible links when a username appears on someone's device. The diffi- culty, he explains, is detecting the activity in the first place. "The biggest problems in these cases aren't problems specific to Malta. The prob- lems that make these cases dif- ficult are a lack of visibility into children, and sometimes a lack of cooperation from certain service providers—some are more ready to help than others, or may be faster to help than others," he says. Once investigators detect a case, they examine devices and digital evidence. Zammit says police in other countries engage with people in gaming environments, much like officers do on the street. He compares this to monitor- ing a subject's social media, but with attention directed toward games. What a parent might notice For parents, Zammit recom- mends understanding the de- vices children use, taking an interest in what they can do on them and noticing changes in behaviour, including unusual mood swings or aggression. On the device itself, he points to the material being shared. "It's the type of material that's present; a lot of it has to do with gore, blood, and the way they speak. I think that's the biggest thing I can point to," he says. He gives the example of a child being sent a video of a shooting and stresses the im- portance of noticing a pattern in the content. The names and language are harder to follow with new acro- nyms emerging constantly, he explains, and expecting parents to learn them all is less useful than encouraging them to ex- amine what is being shared. He acknowledges how diffi- cult it can be for parents to seek help when they suspect some- thing is wrong. He encourages them to take an interest and try to find out what is happening. His advice comes back to what's on the screen—keep an eye on the videos a child is watching, how people speak to them, and whether violent con- tent keeps appearing. His advice comes back to what's on the screen—keep an eye on the videos a child is watching, how people speak to them, and whether violent content keeps appearing Concerns may also come through schools and social welfare services. School staff can report unusual behaviour, allowing police to decide whether checks or intervention are needed, Zammit says