Mothers, fathers and carers are often the first to notice.

Sarahs Story Part 1 - Transcript

James experienced bullying from a really young age. Started in kindergarten. He'd had a really rough time at school, spending a lot of time in the wellbeing unit, kind of by himself. School just didn't feel like a safe place for him. He was angry that life was in such a bad place. He was pretty isolated.

Back when behaviours were escalating and things were getting really out of control, getting calls from the school to come and collect him, being suspended, it was really hard with work and just trying to juggle life as a single parent.

Before authorities got involved I knew that James was in a lot of group accounts with other kids at school. To start with, I think it was just a lot of different kids coming together and chatting and getting to know each other.

I think some of the content might have got a little bit out of hand. I'm not super tech savvy, so sort of knowing even what some of the apps were, probably was a downfall for me.

I'd gotten calls from the school, to say that there was fake accounts and which kids were being involved in that. And James was a pretty big target, he was one of those kids that, was quite loud and maybe didn't understand control as much as other kids would have.

He often looked like a naughty kid. It got really bad. He would often spend a lot of time on his own just because it just all got too much.

And that bullying went from school to online and then in public places and was a lot.

When I look back, spending a lot more time, you know, on his phone, on his iPad, in his room. Engaging less, with the family and then, noticeably upset. Boys are hard to get things out of. Yeah, I was concerned about James.

We'd gone from this lovely little primary school where everything felt so protected, to the big, wide world of the unknown. Your first child going to high school, navigating what it's like to be a teenager. Hormones, mixing with lots of other kids and just not knowing what the dangers were.

And then, when you start finding out and sort of start to think, wow, have I been paying attention?

Knowing what I know now in terms of online risks, I would probably, try and monitor things a little bit better.

When James was a kid he was really advanced in everything from walking to talking to reading, he just knew a lot of facts about lots of things, like animals and countries and history. He was just really curious.

He would become really hyper focused on topics that interested him. And then I think as he got older, it probably developed into sort of interest in more controversial topics. Politics, and now I think it's really easy to get absorbed online with those kinds of things.

Just not really understanding boundaries and consequences. Kids just don't really have the capacity to consciously realise, you know, that they're going down that rabbit hole.

They all start talking about the same thing. They all start researching the same thing, they don't know what they're getting themselves into. They don't know that what they're talking about or or what they're engaging in, is something they perhaps shouldn't be.

It is really important, for parents to know that, some of these things can be taken really seriously. Whether there's intent or not.

Kids can be monitored and they don't realise it, and definitely parents don't realise it either.

esp@dcj.nsw.gov.au  

End of transcript.

Transcription - Stuart

(man walks along country gravel drive and then sits at outside table under a tree)

Stuart voice over: Ollie’s actions had a catastrophic effect on our family. It is a terrible thing to have to go through, and I would not wish anyone else to go through this process at all.

Text on moving image: ESP SPOTLIGHT: STUART

Text on black slide: Stuart’s son became vulnerable to violent extremism during COVID-19. This is his story.

(montage of man sitting at outside table, close up of hands, walking around country property)

Ollie didn't have the easiest childhood, during school there were bullying issues. He didn't necessarily get on that well with some of his classmates. Some of the teachers. He wasn't troubled but school was difficult.

Ollie was quite an independent thinker. And he would voice his opinion and that quite often led to him being ostracised by teachers and other students. Ollie’s interest in extremism was primarily driven by the lockdowns and the vaccine mandates. Being forced to do something that he didn't agree with was probably the thing that pushed him down this path.

What made Ollie vulnerable at the time was a lot of homeschooling. Both parents had to work outside the house. And as a consequence, he was left at home on the internet.

(montage of a teen on a mobile phone, man sitting at outdoor table with hands folded, country property driveway, slow motion man walking on property, looking up at tree branches, country scenes)

A child can be sitting there in front of you in a living room, and if they've got the screen away from you, you can't actually see what they're doing. They can be communicating and chatting with someone else and sharing images and sharing all sorts of things that they shouldn't.

Ollie was under the mistaken belief that you could go to a private chat site and was shocked that someone else could take offense in what he believed was a private room. There are no private rooms on the internet.

Any time that you communicate or share something, it's recorded. It never goes away. And you are potentially committing an offense.

So on the day of the law enforcement activity the first thing I was aware of was the doorbell rang. I opened the front door. I had a piece of paper thrust in my face, and 12 people came into my house and they isolated all of us. They spent the next 12 hours taking apart all the devices and they forensically downloaded every single file on that computer.

They also went through the computer to find anything that they thought may be offensive.

My wife was upset beyond belief. My daughter was traumatized by the process. It took a significant period of time for the resolution and the end of it to occur. It was just devastating.

(montage of hands folded on outside table, country setting sun through trees, pond water on country property, close up of mans mouth talking, walking by pond, walking and sitting by the pond on a chair)

He was extremely stressed, extremely concerned. I could see that it was a real struggle for him every day, to cope with the unknown, the pressure. He was in a really very bad place. I recognised that I couldn't help Ollie, but perhaps someone else could.

The work that ESP has done with Ollie has been very, very powerful. Very encouraging to become social, to have friends and to be busy and not to be online. That's the big thing, is to actually physically be present with other people.

And also to give some guidance about what not to do and how to if they want to turn their life around and stay out of trouble. Without ESP Ollie definitely would not have made the progress that he's had. I think it's been very, very important.

(montage of over shoulder shot, blurred side on shot of man sitting on chair, folded hands close up, skimming stones on a body of water, man and teen standing by water skimming stones)

Ollie has gained a position with a significant company and that gave him confidence to stick with his goals and to improve his life.

ESP is the thing that you can grab on to when you're drowning. Knowing that we can contact someone who understands what's going on because it's a very isolating process to go through this. It's not something that you want to talk about with anyone else.

For most people, they're completely unaware of how this works. In reality, they're unaware that their child may have been subject to predatory behavior. They get it, and they understand

I can't recommend it highly enough. You've got nothing else to lose. I think it's definitely worth giving ESP the chance to help.

Text on black slide: Contact ESP on: 1800 203 966

esp@dcj.nsw.gov.au  

End of transcript.

Transcription - Ollie

(young man walks into a field in the dark and looks up at the sky)

Ollie voice over: I didn't know if they're going to arrest me on the spot, I didn't know if my whole life was gone. That was definitely the worst feeling in my life.

Text on moving image: ESP SPOTLIGHT: OLLIE

Text on black slide: Ollie became vulnerable to violent extremism during COVID-19. This is his story.

(montage of Ollie by the fireplace, looking up at the sky, hands scrolling on a mobile phone, hands on a keyboard and back of head with gaming headset)

Ollie voice over: I was in high school, I was studying, I’d just moved schools. I was on the school rugby team. Had a lot of friends.

In 2020 that's when Covid started. I was definitely feeling resentful. My dad had become redundant at work.

And that meant my family was getting no money. And yeah, it's just really stressful time at home. I was stuck on the internet. I didn't have much to do.

I was spending a lot of my time on Discord, it was becoming more and more extreme, and then it moved into more of a community kind of thing rather than just looking at memes.

And once I got involved in the community, it's where things became more radical. I've certainly always been more right wing.

However, it just got way blown out of proportion. I felt like I lost control. I found the power and the attention addictive.

I found a community of people online who are equally as resentful to the system for their own reasons. And then when the second lockdown started, I found the Foodists and it got a lot more crazy. I got a lot more involved. This time I got more resentful.

I got very angry and I didn't care anymore. I was 16 years old, 15 years old. My brain was still developing. I was not fully aware of the outcomes that occurred from it. I didn't know how severe they went, and I did not know how seriously it gets taken.

Text on black slide: Ollie never understood the seriousness of his activity online until law enforcement knocked on his door

(montage of Ollie sitting by the fire over shoulder shot, Ollie loading wood on the fire)

Ollie voice over: I woke up early for school one morning. I had an extension maths class early, was having a shower and I saw three people right in front of me, I didn't know what was happening. I was very scared and they told me to go to my room and put clothes on.

I followed the police to where my dad was at the table. They started showing me the court order they had to seize my devices. And, while I just sat there and didn't know what to do. It lasted from about 730 in the morning all the way to about 5 p.m., they were in my house.

My family was probably the part the made me the saddest for them to have to have police in the house. That was definitely the worst feeling in my life.

(montage of white truck driving at dusk, hand on steering wheel, over shoulder shot of fire, opening bonnet of car and tinkering with engine, walking inside a house, hands playing chess by the fire, walking outside in dark and looking up at sky)

Ollie voice over: I joined the program, as was recommended by the police who came to my door. the ESP were able to help me calm down. They were able to offer me services I needed being able to talk to someone about it, because in the few months between November when they came to my door and when I joined the program about January February, I had no one to talk to you. And it was a very, very stressful time for me. I was able to develop some coping skills for a lot of the stress also. And I developed resilience.

And that allowed me with new coping skills, to go make some friends. I was able to then go find and people I really do like going camping with my friends. I've been doing some parts of a real life. We help each other build our cars.

I was able to yeah, find a good job I got an opportunity to be promoted and I really enjoyed that. The ESP were able to help me with my parents. I would have struggled a lot more with them.

Thanks to the ESP They changed my life.

Any political community which is negative, it's just terrible for your health. It just dramatically effects the way you see the world. It affects everything you do. And yeah, it's just important that you stay positive, do things which help you and don't spend all day online.

It's not healthy. They need to stop. Even if they feel that they can’t stop. They need to stop and they need to reach out for help. If they can't, that need to be taught how permanent things are online.

It's better to get help than someone having to help you get out of prison or get out of a court case. I don't think it would have made the same progress without the ESP

And because of the knowledge I’ve learned throughout the ESP I certainly would recommend it to people who are in dark communities and having a really tough time.

I would certainly recommend the ESP as it has helped me, and I came from a pretty rough situation. I was able to come back into society. I think it's really important that everyone has a chance to do it before it’s too late.

Text on black slide: Contact ESP on: 1800 203 966

esp@dcj.nsw.gov.au  

End of transcript.