<
https://www.theguardian.com/technology/ng-interactive/2026/jul/21/764-network-gamification-of-harm-the-com-cybercrime-ntwnfb>
"In late 2024, in a quiet suburb of Stockholm, a 14-year-old boy approached a
man in his 80s who was using a walker. He stabbed the man three times in the
back.
The video of the attack in Hässelby was streamed and spread quickly. It fed a
global online ecosystem that actively encourages and glorifies acts of violence
and degradation – the “gamification of harm”, as the researcher Marc-André
Argentino puts it.
The boy allegedly had links to a network known as 764. Such groups are known to
target young people in games including Roblox and Minecraft as well as
communities struggling with mental health or sexual identity for online
extortion, pressuring them into acts of violence and self-harm.
The 764 network, founded by a Texas teenager, Bradley Cadenhead, is just one
part of an evolving online ecosystem, with perpetrators and victims in dozens
of countries. Cadenhead is now serving an 80-year sentence in the US for
possessing child sexual abuse material.
There are several cases currently before courts around the world with alleged
links to such groups. Legal records from numerous countries suggest they often
celebrate violence, manipulation and harm for its own sake, collecting records
of such acts to gain notoriety and control.
“These are young people recruiting other young people,” says Bjørn Ihler, the
founder of the security firm Revontulet. “It is a youth phenomenon.”
The Australian federal police commissioner, Krissy Barrett, has said: “A
worrying trend is how victims are becoming perpetrators to try to escape their
online bullies who have befriended and groomed them, and then forced them to
hurt themselves.”"
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
