In a sobering warning about the impact of social media on ideological radicalisation among children, ASIO's director-general has expressed concern that artificial intelligence will "accelerate the acceleration" of extremism.
At a summit examining the harmful effects of online platforms on young people, Mike Burgess spoke in broad terms about the ways in which social media and digital technologies were fuelling threats to national security.
But Mr Burgess was emphatic that the problem was an especially pressing one for policymakers focused on education and child safety, pointing out that "all" of the nation's most recent terror cases "were allegedly perpetrated by young people", including one as young as 14.
"The internet was a factor in every single one of these incidents, albeit to different degrees and in different ways," he said.
Mr Burgess said that, during a COVID peak, teenagers "represented around 50 per cent" of ASIO's counter-terrorism caseload — a figure that declined before a more recent "disturbing resurgence".
"Around 20 per cent of our priority counter-terrorism cases involve minors," he said.
"In one generation, we have allowed our children full access to alleyways, content and people that they would not be able to access in the physical world."
Mr Burgess said that ASIO involvement in a case of youthful extremism was "usually" a sign that it was "too late" for other forms of intervention.
"As a nation, we need to reflect on why some teenagers are hanging Nazi flags and portraits of the Christchurch killer on their bedroom walls, and why others are sharing beheading videos in the schoolyard and, more concerningly, why there are young Australians willing to kill in the name of their beliefs," he said.
While the ASIO chief expressed reluctance to become involved in social media policymaking, and wanted to keep his remarks within "ASIO's lane — the national security implications", he said the agency was working with its security partners on a paper on the subject of terrorism and young people.
"Any proposal to regulate social media must, of course, balance free speech, free choice and [the] free market, and we need more research," he said.
"[But] no form of technology, no corner of the internet, should be above the rule of law. Social media cannot be without a social licence."
The summit was organised by the SA and NSW governments. (ABC News: Che Chorley)
Mr Burgess singled out artificial intelligence as a technology of growing concern, saying that while there was currently a "chasm" between the reality and "what's being claimed by tech-evangelists", AI would increasingly become a weapon in the hands of terrorists and foreign powers intent on espionage.
"If the internet is the world's greatest incubator of extremism and social media is the world's greatest accelerator, AI will augment the incubation and accelerate the acceleration," Mr Burgess said.
"We're already aware of extremists experimenting with AI, and it's likely they will try to use it to improve their recruitment campaigns, including through social media.
"A company capable of building such powerful social media algorithms should also be capable of harnessing AI to better identify, moderate and remove extreme material, especially when it is being fed to children."
Friday's summit was organised by the SA and NSW governments amid moves to impose age restrictions on social media use.
Mr Burgess said that among the various kinds of extremist content being accessed by children were expressions of "violent misogynist ideology", including "incel material".
"Incels have committed terrorist acts overseas," he said.
"If a user spends just 10 minutes looking at incel material, the algorithm starts recommending more and more violent misogynist propaganda, including posts glorifying incel terrorists."
In another example, Mr Burgess said it took only "two clicks" to go between a page advocating a "hard-line religious interpretation" and a Telegram network that was "explicitly pro-ISIL, containing propaganda videos [and] messages of support for Australian terrorists".
At an address to the National Press Club in April, Mr Burgess revealed security authorities were aware of Australians communicating with extremists overseas "and discussing how to provoke a race war".
On Friday, Mr Burgess repeated that concern, telling the summit that technological changes since the "height" of the threat from Islamic State and al-Qaeda meant it was not necessarily the case that individuals were most likely to be "radicalised in person".
"Now, individuals can be self-radicalised, and the process can take days and weeks rather than months and years," he said.
"They share content from the internet on social media, and use social media as a gateway to dark parts of the internet — places like a Telegram chat room known as 'Terrorgram'.
"Nationalist and racist violent extremists — including Australians — are using Terrorgram to communicate with offshore extremists and each other."