THE INTERNET has many dark corners where a great deal of unsavoury activity takes place. One of the areas that raises much concern is the risk that young people can become radicalised by picking up misleading and manipulative messages that promote and appear to validate particular causes.

The most worrying of these, of course, is the area surrounding the dissemination of fundamentalist religious doctrines. In recent times, there have been many stories of young Muslims, in particular, being led to believe in extreme interpretations of Islam as a means of protecting and advancing their faith.

In some cases, this has led to young people leaving their home and family to sign up with ISIS in places like Syria and Iraq. In other instances, it has seen people hatching plots to carry out terrorist atrocities against a range of targets.

It goes without saying that it’s an area which is incredibly sensitive and complex but if we’re ever to combat the threat of terrorism, we need to make sure the motivations for such acts are thoroughly understood.

Whereas radical messages may once have been delivered predominantly in face-to-face encounters, perhaps the web is now the tool of choice. Therefore, the announcement that the University of Bradford is to work with police to carry out an in-depth study into online radicalisation is a very welcome one.

It’s far too big a job for any one institution, of course, but there’s no doubt that the new partnership will be able to make a significant contribution to understanding the processes involved and helping to find ways to counter-act it. We wish them well with their task.