20
May
2026
Watch
Recruitment of children by organised crime (debate)
Mr President, Commissioner, there are over eight hundred high-risk criminal networks in Europe. They recruit children, school-aged, 12-year-olds from every corner of the web, from TikTok, Instagram, games. Where our children are. Promising money, status, friendship. Friendship unnoticed turns into abuse. The child gets stuck. You can't get out of the network. There is violence ahead. We know the pattern, and the criminals know exactly what they're doing. They take advantage of children's ability to trust. They choose children because the sentences are less severe, and because children believe in promises. That's why the platforms look the other way. We must not allow the cycle to continue. We must not allow platforms to avoid responsibility. We must not allow criminals to take the future away from the children on whom we should build it. We have to do better than that.