Speaking in Jakarta on Wednesday, Meutya said online radicalization had evolved from explicit hate messages into deceptive outreach designed to gain the trust of potential recruits.
"The violence begins with a helping hand—medical assistance, debt repayment and personal support—followed by promises of welfare," she said.
"Once trust is established, they are led to extreme ideologies," she added.
Meutya said extremist networks increasingly target children and vulnerable communities by disguising recruitment efforts as humanitarian assistance or social welfare programmes.
"They promise welfare, such as free schooling, only for victims to arrive and be forced into early marriage," she said, warning that such practices were linked to serious human rights abuses.
The National Counterterrorism Agency (BNPT) recently intercepted an online recruitment attempt targeting 112 children on a single digital platform, she said.
According to Meutya, exposure to extremist content often changes young people's behaviour gradually, making it difficult for families to detect radicalization until communication has already deteriorated.
She said rapid advances in digital technology and algorithm-driven recommendation systems have created online echo chambers that amplify extremist narratives and reinforce existing beliefs.
"When narratives and algorithms come together, they create an illusion where facts are overridden by emotions or beliefs," Meutya said, urging families and government institutions to strengthen vigilance and improve safeguards against online radicalization.
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Translator: Farhan Arda Nugraha, Yashinta Difa
Editor: Rahmad Nasution
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