Against radicalization teens, software was created. That … – L’Obs

High school students in a school yard, illustration (Valinco / Sipa)

a student in class supports an Islamist about. Provocation deliberately or radicalization going on?

For teachers, doubt is sometimes difficult to maintain.

We decided there a few months to give schools the means to distinguish between a teenager who taunted her teachers to attract attention, and those who are truly subject to a Salafist radicalization.

“Profiler” radicalization

There is no more risk of radicalization in Zurich elsewhere, but we prefer safe than sorry.

for the Swiss Institute of estimate violence (SifG) it captures all kinds of risky behavior, whether threats, discrimination and physical attacks. For two years, we focus on religious extremism

It is in this context that created “Ra-Prof.” – For “Radicalization profiling”. This is a software that identifies the various stages of radicalization, pushing or even early.

The test can detect extremism in any subject, but it is especially in schools. It’s important that teens provocations are taken seriously by their teachers, and that they establish a true dialogue with teaching their students.

“Yes”, “no”, “no information”

Specifically, when a teacher is taken a doubt about one of his students, he comes into our premises to the Ra-Prof test – the subject suspected of radicalization never fulfill themselves the questionnaire

the software offers them. then forty questions which they must answer “yes”, “no” or “no information”. The goal is not to push them to play detective, but just to clarify that “they know or do not know about their students.

No need to be an expert in Islamism or radicalization. the teacher must simply know a minimum his pupil, and, select “yes” to a question, he must indicate the source of his information.

the questions were by universities, scientists and researchers, and may affect the behavior of a student in class as his internet activities. They are then directly weighted by Ra-prof.

“Salafist friends on Facebook?”

the software has four main groups of questions. one of them focuses on the radicalization via the internet.

We know that young people are essentially sucked into extremism falling on publications found on the web are asked, for example. “he posted radical nature of content on Facebook? “; “Has he, in his list of friends, individuals already identified as part of a Salafi organization?” ; “If he departs from his family, his friends?”.

However, it remains impossible to estimate the degree of radicalization of young from his publications on the internet – like the activism of an individual, for example, is not judged that the pace of its posts engaged on social networks.

To assess the degree of radicalization of a subject, the software just trying to get a behavioral overall impression, which takes into account both its virtual activities but also its interactions in the world . real

Red “urgent need for action”

a color appears at the end of the test. Green, all is well. Orange: it will give information later. Red is the alarm: there is an urgent need for action

In this case, the SifG has the option to report the person to the police, who can. possibly warn intelligence services.

Ra-Prof was launched in Switzerland in September. Since then, 41 faculty members have used the software, which was confirmed in some cases, that radicalization was actually in progress. In others, the test instead allowed teachers to ensure that one of their students, whose behavior escapes them, was not the target of radicalization and, apart from that, to any discrimination.

Ra-Prof has been translated into 14 languages. Some cities in Germany and Austria have already adopted. Next step, maybe: the France

Interview by Julia Mourri