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Organised crime gangs using AI to manipulate children into drug dealing, LBC investigation finds
3 October 2024, 14:17
An investigation by LBC has found organised crime gangs are using AI to manipulate and exploit children into county lines drug dealing.
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The investigation has also found evidence of 'How To Manuals' being shared online in order to teach groomers how to blackmail and subject children to sextortion.
There are reports of young gamers being used to hack into big companies, and concerns victims of youth violence are too afraid to get medical help for things like stab wounds.
Johnny Bolderson, Senior Service Manager at Catch 22, told LBC: "Young people will have celebrities they look up to and we've seen AI videos being adapted to pass a message, or being used to exploit a young person.
"They genuinely believe someone famous is telling them it's okay to do this, it's okay to carry drugs, it's okay to carry knives. AI is very dangerous and it needs to be regulated, controlled and watched.
"We've heard they can adapt parents' voices or actually copy certain voices that are close to a young person and that's quite worrying because they could be sent over WhatsApp as a message, for example; 'Please can you stop and pick up some milk', which could be quite dangerous. Something as simple as that, the gang could be there waiting for them.
"We have young people, aged 14 or 15, who have been moved to an area for their own safety, that's something that could be used to lure that young person back into a dangerous environment."
Sarah Parker, Research and Development Officer at Catch 22, told LBC they have seen evidence of 'How To' manuals teaching potential groomers about how to subject a young person to controlling behaviour and sextortion.
She said: "That certainly does sometimes happen, and there's been some really disturbing things around particularly the sexual exploitation of children.
"Recently there was a 'sextortion manual' that was made public that clearly people had been accessing to find out how to gain power over a child by making them do something sexual and then extracting money from them."
Read more: Police to trial AI in a bid to help solve Britain’s most complex cold cases
On the subject of stabbings, Jonny said: "The amount of people who aren't going to hospital for stab wounds is extremely high.
"We had one person who had nine stab wounds to them and they didn't go to hospital for any of them.
"It's great to see admissions are low for stab wounds and things like that, but we need to look at the number of people coming in saying it was an accident, slashes by glass, bottles, why don't they feel coming to the hospital? It increases risk of infection dramatically."
Latest figures show 4,316 potential victims of modern slavery were referred to the Home Office from April to June 2024, representing an 8% increase from the year before. Of those involved in County Lines, nearly 80% were young men.
