Imagine a scenario where you send your child outside to play in the front of your home while you do some chores. You watch as they are riding their bike or scooter. Some of their friends from the neighborhood start to join in. Everything points to a wonderful play time. Then you watch as a group of 3 or 4 people in their mid 20s start to pester your kids. You hear them yelling insults and threatening to push one of the kids off their bikes. At this point you would probably go outside and tell those people off, protect the kids, and get your child out of danger.
This type of bullying is easy to recognize and deal with. However, something far worse is going on, and it’s happening right inside our homes. You might be thinking the worst your child may experience is online bullying, porn exposure, or catfishing attempts. Unfortunately, there is something far worse, it’s an online group called 764.
What is Group 764?
764 has been labeled by the Department of Justice as a Nihilist Violent Extremist group (2025) that preys on children online through social media sites, children’s video games, and mental health support groups (Ryan, 2025). They target vulnerable kids between the ages of 9-17, groom them, convince them to send exploitive material, and then they extort them. Members also threaten to spread the material they have collected from the child unless they do whatever they ask.
Most of the members of 764 demand children to do what are called ‘cutsigns’ (Ryan, 2025), meaning having the child deeply cut the username of the person threatening them in their arms, legs and other sensitive places. There are cases of kids with these cuts all over their bodies (Ryan, 2025). Once they know a child is willing to engage in acts like this, they will not stop. They demand them to write satanic messages with their blood, kill their animals on livestreams, hurt other people, and sometimes commit suicide.
Members of this group use these acts of extortion to gain higher status in their ranks. They also engage in exchanging child sexual abuse material (CSAM), and participate in other violent crimes including terrorism (Levine, 2025).
Where do they organize?
Members of 764 target kids on platforms they use frequently such as Roblox, Minecraft servers, Instagram, Snapchat, and TikTok, with Roblox being the worst (Ryan, 2025). Not only does 764 publicly advertise selling CSAM on the platform, Roblox obtains 30% of all profits made on their game.
Roblox, the number one game for children in the world (Alexander, 2025), is profiting off of child pornography. Have the owners of Roblox done anything about this? No, in fact they actively banned members for exposing this activity (Klee, 2025) and posted that they will not allow vigilantes on their platform (Kaufman, 2025).
Images of 764 members advertising CSAM (left) and 764 in-game chat (right) collected from Ryan Montgomery on the Shawn Ryan Podcast (2025)
Along with hiding in the applications that children frequently use, 764 members will also find their victims within mental health support groups. Whether they pretend to be a child in a support group or create a fake support group online, they target children who are already struggling and take advantage of them.
What Can Parents Do?
With something so largely present on these sites, it can be difficult to know what to do to protect your children from this group. We heavily encourage removing your children off of platforms like Roblox, public Minecraft servers, and other forms of media where they can have private chats with people you don’t know. However, if your children are on these platforms be aware of what they are doing. Spend time with them on private multiplayer games, watch videos with them, look at their previous activities. We know it can be cumbersome to do this, but the activity your children are doing with others online can quickly become a matter of life and death.
If you are not sure where to begin with educating your children about internet safety, we have several articles on raising resilient children, dangerous apps, and understanding mental health challenges in children. This can be a good first step to learning where to begin.
There are also several resources that help you monitor your child’s activity. Pinwheel (2025) is a company that offers ‘dumb phones’ with monitoring services and limited access to platforms. There are also several apps that warn you when suspicious messages are sent to your children like Bark (2025).
Be Vigilant
There are estimated to be 20,000 to 30,000 members of this group constantly present on these sites (Ryan, 2025). As parents, we need to be able to protect our children from the dangers outside and inside our home. This is serious. You may think that these platforms are harmless fun, but it can take a dark turn really fast. Be aware of what your children are viewing and who they are talking to online. Employ monitoring and filtering software at the router level, on their phones, tablets, and laptops. Do not let younger kids on a device unsupervised, where they can meet significantly more predatory individuals than they could ever meet in your neighborhood.
Citations
Alexander, D. (2025, December 8). Misrated Monday: Roblox, Another Day, Another Lawsuit—And Why We Need the App Store Accountability Act December 8, 2025. Digital Childhood Alliance. https://www.digitalchildhoodalliance.org/misrated-monday-roblox-another-day-another-lawsuit-and-why-we-need-the-app-store-accountability-act/
Kaufman, M. (2025, August 13). More on our removal of vigilantes from Roblox. Roblox. https://corp.roblox.com/newsroom/2025/08/more-on-removal-of-vigilantes-from-roblox
Klee, M. (2025, August 25). Roblox banned a creator for “hunting” pedophiles — and critics are pissed. Rolling Stone. https://www.rollingstone.com/culture/culture-features/roblox-schlep-pedophile-vigilante-lawsuits-1235414218/
Levine, M. (2025, October 31). DOJ, in a first, brings terrorism charge against alleged member of 764 network. ABC News. https://abcnews.go.com/US/doj-brings-terrorism-charge-alleged-member-764-network/story?id=126990857#:~:text=Interest%20Successfully%20Added-,DOJ%2C%20in%20a%20first%2C%20brings%20terrorism%20charge%20against,alleged%20member%20of%20764%20network&text=The%20Justice%20Department%20has%20filed,terrorist%20activity%22%20under%20U.S.%20law.
Ryan, S. (2025, November 20). Ryan Montgomery – Hacker Exposes Roblox, Minecraft, Discord & the Darkest Online Cult | SRS #255. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X51d06g4tuk&t=19069s
United States Attorney’s Office. (2025, November 20). Violent extremist network “764” member facing federal indictment for sexual exploitation, coercion and enticement of minors, cyberstalking. District of Maryland | Violent Extremist Network “764” Member Facing Federal Indictment for Sexual Exploitation, Coercion and Enticement of Minors, Cyberstalking | United States Department of Justice. https://www.justice.gov/usao-md/pr/violent-extremist-network-764-member-facing-federal-indictment-sexual-exploitation
