The FBI calls this type of cult 'modern-day terrorism'. It has found its way to Australia

Emma* thought she made a friend online. Instead, the 14-year-old found herself sucked into a sinister, sadistic online cult.

Warning: This article contains graphic content and references to self-harm and suicide.

The teenager lives in Western Australia, but police believe the person who lured her is somewhere in Eastern Europe. 

She is among a growing number of children targeted by what the FBI describes as "modern-day terrorism", which has been linked to reports of suicide, animal torture and school shootings overseas. 

"I had no choice. I got told that I had to self-harm for him," Emma says.

"I had to use my body to make him happy."

With the support of her parents, the teenager has decided to share her experience with 7.30 to prevent other children falling victim.

Incited to commit ritualistic deeds

Emma, whose name has been changed to protect her identity, loved to play Roblox.

"You can role-play, you can dress up your avatar, you can buy currency on the game," she says.

Around 1.7 million Australian children aged between 6 and 13 use the online gaming platform. 

"I met this guy … he said that I was really good at the game," Emma says.

The teenager says she was asked to move to Discord, another platform that allows file sharing and interactions through messages or video chat.

Seemingly innocuous questions like her age and what school she went to turned to requests for "selfies" and then more explicit content.

"Then he started asking me for, like, pics that were not good … [telling] me 'if you don't do this, I will leak you,'" she said.

At this point, the perpetrator had gathered enough information to identify Emma and her parents. He even found their contact numbers.

Then things escalated further.

Emma was incited to self-harm. She was also told to carry out and film sinister acts like using her blood to write a username on a wall.

Running her hand along her scars, Emma explains that the group glorified gore.

"They made me upset, but I was too scared to tell my parents. That's the main thing. I never told my parents about any of this," she says.

One day the teenager was told to live stream her suicide.

When she refused, they messaged her father.

"When I opened it … it was like a collage of pictures and it was ... blood, cuts, pornographic stuff. I felt sick and scared at the same time," Emma's dad says.

"I didn't really know what it was about ... I had no idea that it was going to be even bigger than that."

Written in blood

The person who targeted Emma is part of a global network.

7.30 has been monitoring some of their encrypted messaging group chats for months.

They share material, including videos of self-harm.

There are also photos of walls and bathtubs covered in satanic symbols and usernames written in what appears to be blood.

AFP Cybercrime Commander Graeme Marshall has been investigating child exploitation for years, both nationally and internationally. He says these networks are unlike anything he has ever seen.

"It's all about status within the group," Commander Marshall says.

"And that compels the perpetrators to continue to try and coerce their victims into doing ever greater self-harm or other activities.

"The other alarming thing that we have seen is that some of the victims then are also coerced to become offenders."

These groups go by different names, but the most notorious is 764.

It was created by a Texas teenager six years ago and named after the zip code of his town.

Bradley Cadenhead was 15 at the time and is currently serving an 80-year prison term.

US cybercrime expert Keven Hendricks says the ideologies that underpin groups like 764 are not new.

"[The] mixing of demonology and Satanism with neo-Nazi tropes, anti-Semitic tropes ... it's like you throw everything into a stew and you let it sit. It just starts to bubble, and really, that's how this all built up," Mr Hendricks says.

"But at its core it was always about harassment, and it was about online trolling."

Mr Hendricks who has previously worked in law enforcement, says police agencies around the world face the same challenge.

"It's just very hard to stamp out an ideology that just regurgitates itself and evolves," he says.

'Brainwashed' into a 'dark place'

Emma's case is among 19 referrals made to the WA Police Force (WAPF) cybercrime squad in the past 18 months.

"She was brainwashed, intimidated, threatened into a dark place she couldn't get out of," says WAPF cybercrime chief Peter Foley.

"It is a scary place, a dark place and we've got children that have been isolated … they will not engage with their parents, their teachers or friends and they will not come to police.

"Those children are out there."

Detective Superintendent Foley says there are different tactics used to intimidate victims into complying and not reporting the group.

One is doxxing, which means publishing someone's personal information online, to allow others to contact or locate them or their family.

7.30 has seen multiple examples of doxxing, where dossiers with the target's phone number, address and even the names and workplace of their parents had been posted online, encouraging others to harass them.

Swatting is another. It is when someone makes a fake emergency call with the aim of tricking a tactical law enforcement unit into raiding an unsuspecting person's home.

Detective Superintendent Foley says any child could be at risk and is urging parents to be vigilant about their children's behaviour.

"When they start hiding their devices, hiding the content of the devices … if they start to isolate themselves … these are some of the risk indicators we see," he says.

In June, the Australian Federal Police (AFP) travelled to London for a meeting of The Five Eyes — an intelligence-sharing alliance made between the UK, US, Canada, New Zealand and Australia.

Combating sadistic online exploitation was high on the agenda.

"We engage broader than the Five Eyes. We also engage through Europol, with our European counterparts," Commander Marshall says.

The AFP launched a task force to disrupt and dismantle these networks last year.

Commander Marshall would also like to see more proactive measures in areas like health and education to prevent the crimes from occurring in the first place.

"I still struggle to believe that we can have kids as young as 11 perpetrating these types of crimes," he says.

"There's a lot of ability to have those earlier interventions that actually produce better outcomes for our youth than having to go in and either safeguard a victim who's already been harmed or lay a criminal charge against a very young offender."

'Industry-wide challenge' says Roblox

7.30 asked Discord and Roblox how confident the platforms were that the systems they had in place were enough to protect children from grooming and exploitation.

In a statement, Roblox said these "horrific crimes" were "an industry-wide challenge" and it took them extremely seriously.

"We have dedicated teams and systems working proactively to identify and remove content and users associated with these criminal networks, and we collaborate with law enforcement to help bring them to justice," the statement reads.

Discord said it was "deeply committed to user safety".

"We use a combination of advanced technology and trained safety teams to proactively find and remove content that violates our policies," says a Discord spokesperson.

"Unlike social media platforms that use algorithms to select content and maximise engagement, our service strives to enable organic, real-time interaction and connection."

Both platforms are currently exempt from Australia's age-restricted social media ban.

Australia's online safety regulator released a report last week, finding "significant gaps" in how gaming platforms protect children online.

"Australian children have a right to play online without being exposed to predators, sexual extortionists, violent extremist content or other harmful material," eSafety Commissioner Julie Inman Grant said.

"While we have seen some safety improvements as a result of sustained regulatory pressure, including the recent court-enforceable undertakings we accepted from Roblox, there is still significant work to be done."

Emma's parents want the platforms to be more accountable.

They say it is "terrifying" knowing that her abuser is still at large and could be targeting other kids.

"They were pretty much getting her to destroy herself," Emma's mum says.

"It's heartbreaking as parents to watch her go down."

While the wounds on her body have healed, Emma is still recovering from the psychological impact.

"The things I've done were really, really bad and I regret each bit," she says.

"I don't want other people ending up like how I ended up."

*Emma is not her real name

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