Over-securing campuses in response to school attack plots may lead to normalisation of fear, say experts

SINGAPORE: Ramping up security at campuses following the revelation of school attack plots may bring a sense of safety and assurance in the immediate short term, but may inadvertently normalise a culture of fear among students, experts said.While physical security has a role, preventing students from slipping into radicalisation is just as important, said experts. This includes developing open communication channels with trusted adults with whom they can clarify doubts when they come across dangerous content or face difficulties.On Monday (Jul 27), the Internal Security Department (ISD) said that it had detained three teenagers who were self-radicalised online, with two of them plotting to carry out attacks in schools.One boy, 14, drafted a 21-page manifesto detailing the attack plan and admitted to authorities he would have carried out the stabbings. He was arrested weeks before he was due to carry out the attack, in what ISD called a “close shave”. Associate Professor Razwana Begum, head of global security and strategy at the Singapore University of Social Sciences, said: “Schools must remain places where students feel safe, but also where they continue to feel trusted.“We should be careful not to unintentionally create environments that resemble high-security facilities unless the threat assessment clearly warrants it.”She said that equally important to physical security measures are trusted relationships between students and adults, accessible counselling support, threat assessment capabilities, and a school culture where concerns can be raised early.Ms Shahrany Hassan, founder of local non-profit The Whitehatters that facilitates community dialogue, said that while schools need robust security plans, she would be “very cautious about turning schools into heavily fortified spaces”.“If students have to walk through metal detectors every morning, that inevitably changes how they experience school. It subtly sends the message that school is a place where danger is expected rather than the exception,” she explained.“We have to be careful not to create an environment where fear becomes normalised.”Assoc Prof Razwana noted that while ramping up physical security measures may provide reassurance for some parents, particularly in the immediate aftermath of such incidents, it should not be a sole consideration.“Physical security has a role, but it should complement, not replace, the broader work of building resilient and connected communities,’ she said.Ms Shahrany said that the school community is well placed to notice changes in those who are slowly being radicalised. Notably, students often notice changes in their friends long before adults do, while teachers spend hours with their students daily.They can intervene and make a real difference long before security measures ever come into play, she explained.In the case of the 14-year-old, someone in his school had noticed his signs of radicalisation and alerted the authorities.Senior Minister K Shanmugam said on Monday that “you can’t turn every school into a garrison” and that there was a need to balance security and free movement. DOES THE SYSTEM WORK?Experts said that while Singapore’s approach to preventing and detecting self-radicalisation is working to date, the challenge is evolving in pace and complexity, and authorities need to adapt.“I would be cautious about describing it as either a failure or a complete success. The fact that these youths were identified before they could carry out their plans is, in itself, an indication that our security and community systems are working,” said Assoc Prof Razwana.“At the same time, we should recognise that the landscape has become much more complex. Young people today are exposed to AI-generated content, immersive gaming environments, encrypted platforms and increasingly sophisticated social media algorithms.”S Rajaratnam School of International Studies (RSIS) professor of security studies Rohan Gunaratna said that radicalisation pathways are becoming shorter these days, and governments and community partners need to act faster.“From the time a child or a youth is exposed to radical and violent content, within months and weeks, he or she could get radicalised. As such, parents, peers and teachers need to be alert and vigilant and report anything suspicious immediately to the authorities,” he said.He added that Singapore's trend mirrors a global pattern of increasingly younger individuals being drawn into terrorism.However, Singapore’s “small size, educated political leaders and efficient civil service have enabled cross-ministry collaboration” between the ministries of digital development and information, home affairs and education, said Prof Gunaratna.“Many other governments are grappling to understand and recognise the threat and the risk, let alone address it,” he said.Assoc Prof Razwana said the recent cases should be treated as opportunities to learn and understand what made those youths vulnerable, the warning signs that emerged, who noticed them and where earlier intervention might have been possible. BEYOND THE LAWThe experts also noted that laws and regulations alone are not the solution.“From a criminology perspective, radicalisation often reflects a combination of vulnerability, identity formation, perceived grievance and the search for belonging,” said Assoc Prof Razwana.“The online environment simply accelerates and reinforces these processes. This means our response has to be equally holistic.”Alongside effective online regulation, there is also a need to strengthen digital resilience among youths, create opportunities for young people to develop healthy identities and positive communities, and equip parents, teachers and peers to recognise behavioural changes early, she said.“I think we have to accept one uncomfortable truth: we can't arrest or filter our way out of this problem,” said Ms Shahrany.These days, young people are fed extremist content through their digital algorithms, and do not need to actively search for such material, she said.“Someone who starts by watching videos about history, geopolitics or even fitness can gradually be recommended increasingly extreme content,” said Ms Shahrany.“From our work at The Whitehatters, we've also found that radicalisation is rarely just about ideology. Ideology is often the vehicle, not the starting point.”Her organisation’s work has shown that many young people who become vulnerable to extremist influence are looking for something deeper, such as a sense of belonging, identity, purpose, significance or simply someone who understands them.The 14-year-old who had planned the attack on his school was fuelled by personal grievances at being bullied by his schoolmates and put under stress by his teachers. Listen: Ms Shahrany stressed the need to create spaces where youths can ask difficult questions without immediately being judged or shut down.“One lesson we've learnt through our dialogue programmes is that when people feel they cannot ask sensitive questions, it's not that they stop asking – they simply go elsewhere for the answers, and increasingly, that elsewhere is the internet,” she said.Going further upstream, parents, teachers, youth workers and religious leaders also need better support, as they may be uncertain when having difficult conversations with youths under their care, said experts.For instance, it is not just about parents constantly monitoring phones, but maintaining relationships where their children feel comfortable talking about what they are seeing online.“If a teenager comes across a conspiracy theory or extremist video, the first reaction shouldn't be fear of punishment. It should be, ‘let's talk about it’,” said Ms Shahrany.RSIS associate research fellow Kenneth Yeo said that Singapore can be “optimistically vigilant” about youth radicalisation, noting that the cases were detected by ISD before anything happened.Among the three latest cases was a 15-year-old boy whose mother unwittingly helped him print a flag for his planned caliphate via an e-commerce retailer, and whose friends and family appeared to be aware of his extremist views but did not report him to authorities.“It is tricky because we also don't want Singapore to become overly draconian so there is a fine balance between policing and being overly invasive,” said Mr Yeo.The situation is made all the more tricky due to the evolving and diversifying extremist landscape, leading to ideologies not typically considered to be dangerous that are now taking a dangerous turn, he said. SOCIAL MEDIA BAN NOT SILVER BULLETExperts also told CNA that a social media ban is not the solution to youths being exposed to dangerous content online through their algorithms.The 14-year-old boy who was radicalised had “avidly consumed” violent gore and mass shooting content that he encountered on social media, based on algorithmic recommendations as well as online channels that were linked to the True Crime Community.Mr Shanmugam said on Monday that the Ministry of Digital Development and Information is looking at how to best deal with the issue of protecting young people online, including whether a social media ban is the best approach.“I don't think a blanket ban is the long-term answer. Young people today move easily across multiple digital platforms. If we only remove access from one platform, the underlying vulnerabilities remain,” said Assoc Prof Razwana.She said that tech companies have an important responsibility to design safer online environments and reduce algorithmic amplification of extremist content.“Many young people are not initially searching for extremism – they are searching for identity, belonging or purpose,” she added.“When legitimate spaces fail to meet these needs, harmful online communities can fill the gap. Strengthening protective relationships offline remains one of our strongest safeguards.”Ms Shahrany similarly said that a social media ban will not be the silver bullet many people hope it will be.“The challenge isn't simply that social media exists. It is how recommendation algorithms can quickly amplify increasingly extreme content, especially for young people who are still forming their identities,” she added.Experts noted that if one platform disappears, extremist communities often migrate elsewhere – a trend that has been observed repeatedly over the years.“There are many ways to circumvent a ban,” said Mr Yeo, adding that online platforms, such as forums, private chat groups and games, are also avenues that extremism can manifest and propagate.Ms Shahrany said that ultimately youths need to be equipped with the capability to assess content and situations for themselves.“We teach children how to cross the road safely because we know we can't remove every car. In the same way, we need to teach them how to navigate the online world safely because we cannot remove every harmful piece of content,” she said.