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Denmark to target anti-radicalization at kids

Children as young as nine years old will be taught about extremism and radicalization under a local plan in Aarhus, while the government says a similar national plan is also on its way.

Denmark to target anti-radicalization at kids
The Aarhus programme will target kids in the fourth and fifth grades (ages 9-11). Photo: Henning Bagger/Scanpix
Denmark’s second-largest city Aarhus has announced new plans to combat potential radicalization in students as young as nine and ten years old. 
 
 
 
Now the school curriculum for students in the fourth and fifth grades will include material meant to prevent radicalization before it can take hold. 
 
“The earlier the better. We are lucky enough that, unlike the radical environments, schools have a unique ability to affect children and young people,” Aarhus council member Bünyamin Simsek told Berlingske
 
The city plans to expand its radicalization and discrimination workshops, which have been taught in the ninth and tenth grades since 2012, down to the younger students to help them see through extremist propaganda. 
 
Although Aarhus will reach students as young as nine years old, the rest of the nation won’t be far behind. 
 
The government’s recently-passed anti-radicalization plan includes plans to institute a peer-to-peer strategy on radicalization that will begin in the sixth or seventh grade. According to the Social Ministry, two million kroner ($300,000) has been set aside for the project, which will formally be announced later this year.