Terrorism recruiters are increasingly looking to sway Australian youths as the supply of older would-be foreign fighters dries up, the federal police's counterterrorism chief has said.
In a what amounts to a stark warning to parents and communities, Australian Federal Police assistant commissioner Neil Gaughan told Fairfax Media that older, often charismatic jihadist recruiters would increasingly target young and impressionable people including teens such as Bankstown 17-year-old Abdullah Elmir.
"You could argue they've almost tapped out on the 25-pluses that wanted to go. Now they're looking at a younger cohort," Mr Gaughan said.
"So law enforcement particularly is spending a lot of time in the schools, trying to counter that narrative. The only way you can do it is continually go in there with a different story, a different viewpoint.
"They're playing a slick social media game and we've just got to counter that."
Elmir, who ran away from home in June and appeared in his second Islamic State video earlier this week, was the latest example, Mr Gaughan said.
He said police were holding "a very active investigation" into who recruited Elmir and paid for his ticket.
Authorities were approaching several high-profile Muslim sportsmen in the hope of using their clout to counter extremist messages, Mr Gaughan added.
He was speaking as the Senate began debating the Abbott government's "foreign fighters" bill, which will give police more power to launch prosecutions against people who travel abroad to fight with extremists and to thwart plots at home.
With Labor now expected to support the bill – though it will push for some amendments – the new laws should pass by the end of the week.
Mr Gaughan also signalled the police would make more use of "control orders", which can restrict a terror suspect's movements, limit their communications and impose curfews. The foreign fighters laws will make it easier for police to seek these orders.
While they would still prefer to gather enough evidence to prosecute suspects, police are grappling with the Islamic State-era trend towards lower-tech, more spontaneous plots, which means they might often have to swoop on suspects before they have gathered enough evidence – as was the case with the recent Sydney raids.
"We anticipate, if legislation is passed, that we will see an expanded use of control orders," he said.
Mr Gaughan said police would apply common sense to whether there was a public interest in prosecuting young people travelling to the Middle East but maintained there was a clear line that divided impulsive youngsters from hardened terrorists.
"If, hypothetically, two 17-year-olds leave Brisbane for Syria and get recruited into (Islamic State) and start doing training and suddenly say, 'This is not for me, I want to come home,' and DFAT and others get them home, then clearly we probably wouldn't look at a prosecution. We'd look at some sort of counter-radicalisation program, community engagement, keeping a close eye on them.
"But if (a person is) involved in actual fighting and potentially killing people, and involved in a terrorist organisation, the law is black and white.
"With something as serious as that, our hands would be tied. There would be an expectation by the vast majority of the community that they be charged and put before the courts.
"There is a line to cross."
