Sky News has released a detailed investigation into The Com, a decentralised online ecosystem linked to grooming, coercion, sexual exploitation, self harm, violence and cybercrime. The documentary brings together survivors, parents, investigators and journalists to examine how young people can be drawn into communities where abuse may become a form of status.

This is not simply another story about harmful content. The more difficult issue is how belonging, fear, shame, reward and group pressure can be weaponised until a young person moves from observer, to victim, and in some cases to perpetrator.

What is The Com?

The Com is not one organised group with a single leader or ideology. Resolver describes it as a loose global ecosystem of overlapping communities, behaviours and subcultures which can move across different online services.

Resolver’s 2026 report, Weaponised Loneliness, says the ecosystem is largely made up of young people aged between 11 and 25. It links parts of the network to extreme cyberbullying, sexual exploitation, violence, crime, self harm encouragement, severe harassment and extremist material.

That distinction matters. Trying to understand The Com as one website, one app or one extremist movement risks missing how the threat actually works. Groups can change names, split, reform and migrate while retaining similar methods of grooming and coercion.

Sky News reported finding more than 90 Com related chats and channels on Telegram, as well as several Discord servers. However, Resolver deliberately avoids framing the threat as a problem belonging to one platform because the behaviour can move between gaming, social, messaging and other digital spaces.

The scale of the wider threat is also significant. In February 2026, the FBI said it was investigating more than 350 subjects connected to violent online networks commonly described as 764, with all 56 FBI field offices involved.

How grooming can begin

The early stages may look ordinary. A child can meet someone through gaming, social media, a shared interest, a private message or an online community that appears supportive.

Europol has warned that violent online exploitation groups can identify vulnerable young people on mainstream services and then move communication into more private spaces. Contact may begin with attention, kindness, shared interests or apparent emotional support before demands become more controlling.

This is a familiar principle in grooming. Trust is built before control becomes visible. By the time a child recognises the danger, the other person may already know their real name, school, family details, location, friendships, private worries or intimate information.

The FBI says violent online networks have used threats, blackmail and manipulation to force victims into producing harmful material or carrying out escalating acts. The threat of exposing private images, personal information or earlier behaviour can then become a powerful method of coercive control.

The cyberpsychology of victim vulnerability

A child does not need to be naive to be manipulated. Grooming works because it can target normal human needs, then turn those needs into leverage.

Belonging is one of the strongest factors. Resolver identifies social isolation, emotional distress and lack of support as possible push factors, while validation, attention, belonging and perceived status can act as pull factors. It describes loneliness as one vulnerability that can be deliberately exploited, rather than a single cause of involvement.

For a young person who feels excluded offline, an intense online group can offer identity and recognition very quickly. That recognition can become psychologically important, especially when the group creates the impression that outsiders cannot understand them.

Fear and shame can then lock the child into the relationship. Once embarrassing, illegal or intimate material exists, the child may believe disclosure will lead to punishment, humiliation or rejection. That belief can make an offender’s threats feel more powerful than the possibility of asking an adult for help.

Coercive control also narrows perceived choices. The victim may technically be able to close an app or block an account, yet psychologically feel that doing so will trigger exposure, retaliation or harm. Understanding that difference is critical when parents or professionals ask why a child did not simply stop.

How abuse becomes gamified

One of the most disturbing features described by Sky News and Resolver is the use of status systems around harm. Within some communities, carrying out or directing increasingly serious abuse can bring attention, credibility or social standing.

This creates a reward mechanism. Harm is no longer treated only as an act against a victim. It can become proof of loyalty, toughness, influence or belonging within the group.

Group conformity can then amplify behaviour. A young person who would reject an act in isolation may respond differently when peers praise it, normalise it, dare them or present it as the price of membership.

Desensitisation may also play a role. Repeated exposure to extreme material can reduce the emotional shock that would normally interrupt behaviour. Europol has specifically warned that extreme material can be used to desensitise vulnerable people and normalise violence.

None of these psychological processes excuses abuse. They help explain how behaviour may escalate inside a digital group where status, fear and belonging are being manipulated at the same time.

The cyberpsychology of becoming an offender

The most difficult part of this threat is that the boundary between victim and offender may become blurred. Resolver reports documented cases in which victims later perpetrated abuse through coercion, desensitisation or attempts to improve their status.

That does not remove personal responsibility. However, safeguarding and criminal investigation both become more complicated when a young person may have been exploited before they began exploiting someone else.

Status seeking is one possible driver. The FBI says motivations can include sexual gratification, social status, belonging, fear, chaos or a mixture of factors. Resolver also describes systems where extreme harms can be traded for social clout.

Online disinhibition may further reduce restraint. Distance from the victim, anonymity, private group culture and the absence of immediate face to face consequences can make harmful conduct feel detached from the real person experiencing it.

Group identity can reinforce that process. When cruelty becomes normal inside a closed social environment, the young person may begin judging behaviour according to group approval rather than ordinary social standards.

For some participants, ideology may also provide language or symbols that justify behaviour. Resolver cautions that ideological commitment is often superficial or performative, which means the attraction may be less about a coherent belief system and more about identity, shock value and status.

Why The Com matters in Ireland

This is not a distant American or British problem. In July 2026, RTÉ carried a discussion specifically about Irish children being linked to The Com, involving Hotline.ie chief executive Mick Moran and child development specialist Ollwyn Moran.

The international evidence also matters for Ireland because the network operates across borders and platforms. A child in Cork, Dublin or Galway can enter the same digital spaces as users in Britain, Europe, the United States or elsewhere within seconds.

Irish parents therefore need to think beyond the idea of a dangerous stranger living nearby. The person applying pressure may be another young person, an older offender, a group of users or several people operating across different countries.

The same principle applies to schools. Sudden behavioural changes, unexplained online fear, secrecy, isolation or unusual new online relationships should not automatically be dismissed as ordinary teenage behaviour when several warning signs appear together.

Warning signs parents and schools should recognise

No single warning sign proves that a child is being targeted. The concern increases when several changes appear together, particularly when they involve fear, secrecy or a sudden shift in online behaviour.

The FBI has identified a range of indicators associated with violent online exploitation. Parents, teachers and safeguarding staff should pay particular attention to:

• Sudden withdrawal from family, friends or usual activities
• A new online friend or group that appears unusually intense or controlling
• Fear or panic when messages arrive
• Abrupt changes in sleep, eating, mood or school attendance
• Unexplained gifts, gaming currency or online payments
• New secrecy around devices, accounts or messaging
• Signs of self harm, unexplained injuries or attempts to conceal injuries
• Threats involving private images, personal information or exposure
• Police or emergency services being maliciously sent to the family home
• A sudden fascination with extreme violence alongside other concerning behavioural changes

These indicators should be handled calmly. Confronting a child aggressively, immediately threatening punishment or reacting with anger may increase fear and make disclosure less likely.

What parents should do

If a child discloses contact with a harmful group, the first priority is safety. Make it clear that asking for help was the right decision and that the immediate goal is to stop the coercion.

Parents should preserve relevant usernames, account names, messages, dates and platform details where it is safe to do so. Do not redistribute illegal sexual material or graphic content in an attempt to gather evidence.

Report the account and harmful content to the platform. Where child sexual abuse material is involved in Ireland, Hotline.ie provides a confidential reporting route, while suspected criminal behaviour should be reported to An Garda Síochána.

If there is an immediate risk of serious harm, violence or suicide, contact emergency services on 999 or 112. Where a child may need a child protection response, parents and professionals can also contact Tusla for guidance.

Most importantly, do not make shame part of the response. A child who has been coerced into harmful or illegal behaviour may already believe that disclosure will destroy their relationships or lead only to punishment.

Parents who want to review communication risks should also check CODA’s Discord Parental Controls and Safety Settings guide. CODA’s wider Information Guides for Parents provide practical help across platforms and online risks.

What platforms need to recognise

Traditional moderation often separates child sexual exploitation, violent extremism, self harm, harassment and cybercrime into different safety categories. The Com demonstrates why that separation can become a weakness.

Resolver argues for stronger hybrid threat response structures and better sharing of high risk signals between trusted organisations. The aim is to recognise patterns earlier, before isolated incidents escalate across several services.

This is also a safety by design problem. Platforms used by children need systems capable of identifying grooming pathways, coercive patterns and networks that repeatedly reform after enforcement.

Age assurance can help reduce some forms of unsafe contact, but it is not a complete solution. A network whose members may themselves be children requires behavioural detection, safeguarding, reporting, human moderation and law enforcement cooperation as well.

Ireland’s Online Safety Code creates another important part of that discussion. However, regulation must work alongside effective platform detection if rapidly changing cross platform networks are to be identified before serious harm occurs.

The CODA View

The most important lesson from The Com is that online harm can no longer be understood only through individual pieces of content. We need to understand the relationships, reward systems and psychological pressure that surround that content.

For parents, this means moving beyond a simple question such as what app is my child using. We also need to ask who they are talking to, what those relationships feel like, whether someone is demanding secrecy, and whether belonging to a group has started to carry a price.

For schools, safeguarding education must address both victimisation and perpetration. Young people need to understand that coercion can begin with friendship. Status can be manufactured through cruelty, and that someone who first appears to be a peer can still become an exploiter.

For platforms and regulators, the challenge is even clearer. A decentralised threat that crosses child exploitation, self harm, violence, extremist culture and cybercrime cannot be tackled effectively by systems that treat each category as a separate problem.

The Com is disturbing because it exploits vulnerabilities that are deeply human. The response must therefore combine technology, child protection, law enforcement, education and cyberpsychology, with intervention happening before fear and belonging become tools of control.

Sources and Further Reading

The main evidence used in this article comes from current investigative journalism, law enforcement warnings and specialist threat analysis.

• Sky News: The Com, the sadistic online network that manipulates and abuses young people, published 18 September 2026. Sky News investigation
• Resolver: Weaponised Loneliness, A Critical Harm Intelligence Briefing, published January 2026. Resolver report
• Europol: The rise of online cult communities dedicated to extremely violent child abuse, January 2025. Europol intelligence notification
• FBI: Violent Online Networks Target Vulnerable and Underage Populations Across the United States and Around the Globe, March 2025. FBI public safety warning

About Children of the Digital Age

Children of the Digital Age (CODA) delivers practical online-safety education to students, parents, schools and organisations. Our work combines frontline experience, computer forensics, cybersecurity and cyberpsychology to explain both the technology and the human behaviour behind digital harm.

To discuss an AI-safety or online-safety session for your school or organisation, visit childrenofthedigitalage.org.