A mother's warning: If you have white teen sons, listen up ...
Joanna Schroeder has a message for parents of teen and tween white boys: If you don't pay attention to their online lives, the white supremacists will.
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UpdatedJoanna Schroeder has a warning for parents of teen and tween white boys: If you don't pay attention to their online lives, the white supremacists will.
"They've studied the way that our young men interact online, and they have looked at what these boys need," she said. "And they have learned how to fill those needs in order to entice them into propaganda."
How she spotted the extremist messaging
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Religious protesters from a street preachers association watch a group of pro-LGBTQ activists erect a series of boards they call "hate shields" intended to muffle megaphones and serve to reflect the counter-protesters' images in Atlanta on Saturday, Oct. 12, 2019. The march was part of the annual Gay Pride Festival. (AP Photo/Robin Rayne)
Schroeder decided to dig deeper with her sons, one a teen and the other a tween, when she heard them saying words that had been used by trolls against her.
As a writer who has published pieces about men's issues among other topics, Schroeder has suffered online criticism and abuse from those who virulently disagree with her.
Targeted to teens
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Joanna Schroeder was shocked when she heard her sons using the language of online trolls.
Schroeder does not suggest that white teens are necessarily looking for extremist content, but the way the extremist content is constructed � whether it's ironic, irreverent or snarky � seems tailor-made for them.
"They like to feel grown up and they like to feel they are no longer falling for baby humor. That irreverence feels good to them," she said.
Good and bad reactions
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Michael McGarrity, FBI Assistant Director of the Counterterrorism Division, left, Calvin Shivers FBI Deputy Assistant Director in the Criminal Investigative Division, and Elizabeth Neumann Department of Homeland Security Assistant Secretary of Threat Prevention and Security Policy, are sworn in at the start of a a House Oversight and Reform Civil Rights and Civil Liberties subcommittee hearing on confronting white supremacy and the adequacy of the federal response, Tuesday June 4, 2019, on Capitol Hill in Washington. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin)
Schroeder admits she overreacted when she heard alt-right talking points coming out of her son's mouth, perhaps because it felt so personal to her. She became emotional and threatened to take away his phone.
Her husband intervened and she decided to dial it down.
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Domestic terrorism and hate crimes have become a growing concern for law enforcement in recent years as a number of high-profile attacks have left scores dead across the country. Eleven worshippers were killed in October last year when a white supremacist opened fire at the Tree of Life synagogue in Pittsburgh.
