Colombian gangs are utilizing social media to succeed in and recruit kids, the United Nations has warned.
Gangs and insurgent teams are engaging kids to enlist by posting movies on platforms like TikTok and Fb that showcase the “perks” of the life-style. Some clips promise cash, cellphones, and, in some circumstances, beauty surgical procedure, in line with Scott Campbell, Colombia’s consultant for the U.N. excessive commissioner for human rights.
“It’s horrific, poisonous, and ugly. Unlawful teams are utilizing social media to lure ladies and boys into their ranks, which is rising violence throughout the nation and strengthening narco trafficking,” Campbell advised The Guardian. Different social media posts featured “events in golf equipment, designer garments, and heavy weapons,” added Elizabeth Dickinson, an analyst on the Worldwide Disaster Group.
Though the recruitment of kids into gangs isn’t new, the expansive attain of social media is intensifying the difficulty. Within the first quarter of 2025, the U.N. Human Rights Council reported 118 allegations of recruitment or use of kids, verifying 51 of them. The Worldwide Disaster Group lately warned that the speed of kid recruitment has reached its highest degree in additional than a decade.
Consultants have known as for better funding in each automated instruments and human moderators to take away these movies from social media and defend kids focused on-line, particularly these from marginalized communities.
“We ban harmful organizations tied to terrorism and felony organizations whereas supporting legislation enforcement efforts globally to fight them, together with of their efforts to recruit kids,” a Meta spokesperson advised Quick Firm. “That is an adversarial house, which is why we additionally collaborate with different firms to share data and take motion in opposition to these evolving threats throughout the web.”
TikTok has additionally been working to establish and take away content material and accounts that violate its group pointers on this concern. The platform says it’s collaborating carefully with authorities and native entities, together with the Nationwide Police of Colombia, Nationwide Military of Colombia, and CIPRUNNA (a bunch devoted to stopping the recruitment and use of kids and adolescents by unlawful armed teams and arranged felony teams).
The U.N. has described the scenario as a matter of “grave concern.” Consultants warn that extra motion continues to be wanted. Campbell advised The Guardian: “If kids have been being recruited into unlawful teams in London or Silicon Valley, social media firms can be placing large sources into this.”
