FBI Dallas warns: 764 Networks Approach Kids Through Games, Then Blackmail Them

Federal investigators issued a renewed warning on 26 September 2026 about violent online networks linked to 764, following research showing that the networks use social media and gaming platforms to manipulate and blackmail young victims. FBI Dallas reported that 764-related networks operate globally including in North Texas, approaching minors on gaming and social platforms while posing as friends. Research from the National Counterterrorism Innovation, Technology and Education Center indicates that more than eighty percent of those involved, including both victims and perpetrators, are younger than twenty-five, with much of the activity coming from teenagers themselves.

The 764 network illustrates a structural challenge in online child protection: when predators are also minors and the contact begins as an apparently legitimate peer conversation, age verification and blanket access restrictions leave the underlying coercion undetected. Guardii, a Meta Business Partner and world-leading AI safety platform, detects the behavioural signature of coercion as a conversation unfolds, identifying the initial trust-building, the transition toward sexual or violent content, the extraction of material and the onset of threats regardless of whether the perpetrator is an adult or another child, blocking hostile contact before it reaches the target and surfacing a child in crisis to a parent or authority before harm escalates to self-injury or worse.