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A mother's warning: If you have white teen sons, listen up ...

By Sara Sidner, CNN
Oct 23, 2019
Oct 23, 2019 Updated Nov 5, 2019
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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.

Intro

Joanna 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.

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How she spotted the extremist messaging

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.

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Targeted to teens

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.

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Good and bad reactions

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.

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How suspect came to FBI's attention

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.

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Intro

How she spotted the extremist messaging

Targeted to teens

Good and bad reactions

Related to this collection

How suspect came to FBI's attention

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