Kristin Schmit, director of Luxembourg's Criminal Investigation Department, spoke with RTL Radio on Wednesday.
The discussion began with the case announced by the public prosecutor's office on Tuesday, in which 25 people have been charged and more than 200 asylum seekers are believed to have had their documents forged. Over the past three years, 27 searches have been carried out in connection with the investigation.
Schmit said she could not comment on the substance of the judicial investigation, but pointed to a broader issue highlighted in the prosecutor's statement: the lack of effective information-sharing between administrations.
According to Schmit, public bodies are often unable to exchange information when they have doubts or suspect that something is wrong. "There is always this wall of data protection", she said, adding that this was something that needed to be reconsidered.
She described this as part of the development of an "administrative approach" to organised crime, which the police are working on together with the Ministry of Home Affairs. The aim is to improve the flow of information between administrations, as organised criminal networks may try to infiltrate different parts of the system, she said.
"When you look at it from the perspective of a judicial investigation, you see small construction sites everywhere", Schmit said. "But those individual sites are not allowed to work together on the bigger construction site. We are stuck in silo thinking, and silo thinking is what benefits organised crime."
The main focus of the interview was a phenomenon recently presented by police and the public prosecutor's office: online communities that encourage children and teenagers to commit acts of violence or self-harm, often while livestreaming or recording the acts for others to watch.
Schmit said police wanted to raise awareness now because the school holidays are a period when children are likely to spend more time online.
The networks are known as "The Com", short for "The Community". Schmit described them not as one single group, but as a loose network of forums with a common goal: recruiting children on gaming platforms and manipulating them into carrying out sadistic acts.
"They tell them to undress, send photos, cut themselves, harm animals or, in the worst case, kill themselves", Schmit explained. The material is then circulated within these forums, where users gain status by obtaining increasingly disturbing images or videos from their victims, she said.
The recruitment often begins on platforms used by children and teenagers, including Minecraft and Roblox. Schmit stressed that these are not hidden corners of the internet, but ordinary gaming spaces where children spend time.
She compared the risk to the old warning about not accepting sweets from a stranger outside. "That person, we might still recognise in the village as someone a bit strange", she said. "But on gaming platforms, we no longer know who that stranger is, and there are many of them."
Schmit added that those behind the manipulation are not necessarily adults. In many cases, they are teenagers themselves, she said.
Asked about the background to the phenomenon, Schmit said there was no clear ideology behind it, making it harder to detect and classify.
She described it as a brutalisation of society, driven by young people who may themselves be deeply disturbed and who take pleasure in drawing other children into the same network.
International investigations are already under way. Schmit referred to Europol's Compass project, which brings together EU member states as well as partners such as the FBI, New Zealand, and Australia.
According to Schmit, the number of cases continues to rise, with livestreams intercepted, victims and perpetrators identified, and further action days planned to better understand the phenomenon.
Luxembourg has also seen its first cases, although Schmit believes others may not yet have been recognised for what they were. Police and prosecutors will now have to look at certain offences "through a different lens", particularly cases in which children film themselves humiliating, beating, or harming others.
Such incidents, she said, may form part of a wider "The Com" context, in which children are either blackmailed into producing the material or rewarded with status within the network.
Schmit urged parents to speak openly with their children about the risks. Gaming platforms are not only used by friends, she warned, but also by strangers with different intentions, including those with sadistic motives.
She said parents should be alert when an online contact suddenly claims to have the same problems as their child and suggests moving to a private chat.
Once a child has been drawn into such a network, Schmit warned, it can become very difficult to get out. The networks often operate through blackmail: if the child refuses to send more material or carry out further acts, previous images or videos may be threatened with exposure to friends or classmates, she explained.
Parents should not surrender the space entirely to the virtual world, Schmit said. If they sense that their child is being drawn into something dangerous, she stressed, they need to maintain a real-world presence and keep trying to talk.
Schmit listed several warning signs, including sudden changes in behaviour, extremist ideas, glorification of violence, changes in language, social withdrawal, secrecy around online activity, isolation, or wearing long clothes to hide possible self-inflicted injuries.
These signs should not simply be dismissed as puberty, she stressed.
Schmit also said online platforms have a responsibility to act. Under the Digital Services Act, platforms are expected to put certain mechanisms in place, but she acknowledged that not everything can be eliminated.
Still, she said, platforms could do more. Parents should also ask themselves whether it is appropriate for children to spend time on such platforms unprotected, even if access is not formally prohibited, Schmit noted.
Police also see gaps in the current legal framework. Schmit said that inciting a child online to harm themselves, harm others, mutilate themselves, or even take their own life is not sufficiently covered by criminal law.
"If I incite someone to kill themselves live, there is no penalty for that", she explained. "If I incite someone to mutilate themselves live, there is no penalty for that either." That, she warned, creates a space where perpetrators can act with impunity.
At the end of the interview, Schmit addressed young people directly. She urged them to think carefully about who they are interacting with online, not to believe everything they are told, and to develop a healthy level of mistrust.
If they encounter a problem and do not want to speak to their parents, she said, they should at least speak to friends in the real world. The key message, she stressed, is not to remain alone.
