Boy Flagged To UK Anti-Extremist Body Due To Fortnite Comments

A FOUR-YEAR-OLD boy was referred to the UK’s anti-extremist body due to comments he made referring to “guns and bombs” in the Fortnite video game.

The four-year-old boy, a Muslim child from the West Midlands, was referred to the UK’s Prevent anti-extremist body when supervisors at his after school club overheard him referring to “guns and bombs” hidden in his shed.

Transcripts of his actual comments revealed the boy was talking about Fortnite – a wildly popular video game in which 350 million worldwide players hunt for weapons in a digital battleground. He had watched an older cousin play the game the night before while staying in his father’s house.

His case was referred to Prevent, which has seen 624 children under the age of six flagged to its service between 2016 and 2019. Another 1405 kids aged between six and nine have had their cases passed on to the anti-extremist body.

The boy’s mother told The Guardian that she believes her son’s referral would not have occurred if their family had not been Muslim, and that following the report she had worried that armed police would arrive at her home. Recently released Home Office statistics have revealed that the majority of cases referred to anti-extremist bodies are related to the far-right political ideology – not radical Islam as was previously the case.

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