DIGITAL RADICALIZATION OF YOUTH AS A SECURITY CHALLENGE: A SOCIOLOGICAL ANALYSIS OF ONLINE COMMUNITIES AND RECRUITMENT MECHANISMS
DIGITAL RADICALIZATION OF YOUTH AS A SECURITY CHALLENGE: A SOCIOLOGICAL ANALYSIS OF ONLINE COMMUNITIES AND RECRUITMENT MECHANISMS

Summary/Abstract: This article analyzes the phenomenon of digital radicalization of youth as a contemporary security challenge in the urban environments of the Western Balkans, focusing on the sociological mechanisms of online communities and platform-based recruitment patterns. The research was conducted through a mixed-methods approach including secondary analysis of data on the online behavior of youth (aged 15-29) in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Serbia, Montenegro, North Macedonia and Kosovo, systematic mapping of 86 online communities with radicalization potential during 2022-2024, and qualitative analysis of narrative patterns in a sample of 412 publicly available items of content from these platforms. The findings show that the average adolescent in the region spends 5.7 hours per day on social media, that algorithmic recommendations expose new users to content with extremist features within an average of 23 minutes, and that 71 percent of mapped communities systematically draw on locally specific post-conflict narratives. Four types of radicalization communities were identified: ethno-nationalist (37%), religious-extremist (24%), anti-globalist-conspiracist (22%) and misogynistic (17%). The article introduces the concept of a three-phase model of digital radicalization of youth (TMDR-EN) — a sequential transition from initial exposure, through algorithmic deepening, to organizational integration into an online community — and the notion of algorithmic vulne¬rability of post-conflict societies as an analytical category that explains regional specificity. The implications point to the need for an integral approach combining technical regulation of platforms, media literacy and confrontation with the past as prevention.

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