Up to 10 school-aged children who were considering going to war as death cult jihadists are now undergoing government deradicalisation programs.
Australian Federal Police Commissioner Andrew Colvin said the situation was alarming but would not divulge ages of the students or reveal where they were from.
“What worries me as a parent but also as a police commissioner is children who are school aged making decisions they are just ill-equipped to make,” he said.
“We’ve considered 10 school-aged children at this stage for programs in the community to work with them to say this is not a good choice you’re about to make or this is a bad plan you had and we will continue to do that.”
It’s understood some of the students are from Sydney.
The revelations came just a week after it emerged 336 wannabe terrorists were intercepted at Australian international airports before they could leave the country in just 312 days during last financial year. It followed five men being taken off planes at Sydney Airport on August 12, in the biggest single interception in Australia. Each had about $10,000 in their luggage.
A further two men, linked to the group of five, were intercepted a week later.
Mr Colvin, whose crack team of counter-terrorism officers have foiled multiple plots over the last year, conceded it was difficult getting to school students before the sophisticated Islamic State propaganda team corrupted them online.
“We’re very concerned about the youth in our community who seem to be particularly vulnerable to these messages that are coming out of ISIL and out of the Middle East,” he said.
“It is very difficult for law enforcement to try to get ahead of that and try and stop the radicalisation (of young people) from occurring.”
He said the threat of radicalisation was “morphing” and online methods used by recruiters were becoming increasingly hard to stop.
In a bid to stop a repeat of last year’s Martin Place attack, the federal government vowed to train police, prison guards and teachers in how to identify extremists.
Prime Minister Tony Abbott recently appointed Justice Minister Michael Keenan to the critical role of Counter-Terrorism Minister in a bid to beef up the government’s fight against Islamic State.
The Abbott government since it came to power has committed more than $1 billion to fighting terrorism.
The government’s stand couldn’t be firmer, with Mr Abbott declaring: “If you go to Syria or Iraq to fight with a terrorist army, you are committing the modern form of treason.”