To wonder if the police is the right course of action?

[omargard]

One of the kids at my son's college has been sharing lots of white supremacy and racist propaganda online. A couple of the other parents know about it and have told his mother she should get the police involved - trouble is even if the police were interested (I've no idea if they would be or not) it's always in his "stories" so it disappears anyway. She has asked my advice on how to deal with it (they used to be close friends at school so I've known her for years) and quite honestly I've no idea.

It’s a police matter (101 not 999) under the prevent duty to protect children from radicalisation. It should also be reported to the school and the local authority if they have a Prevent Lead. School might do that.

Screenshots of the stories should be taken,

The aim of prevent isn’t to instantly punish but to offer support and investigate radicalism

Yes absolutely - this kid needs to be referred to the PREVENT programme. Whether he's committing offences yet or not, there are things that need to talk to him about.

The college AFAIK could also refer him.

Instagram stories? They might be saved in his account archive depending on his settings so they could still be accessible if the police seized his phone.

Is this in the UK or USA? Just because you said “college” and not “Uni”! I have no idea what you’d do in USA where it seems to be more common. In the UK it’s still pretty fringe and very much centred around the working class EDL type groups.

Screenshots can be taken of stories. And why is everyone waiting for his Mother to do something. Anyone can contact the police about this.

@SweetBabyCheeses99 college in the UK comes after secondary school? 🤔

He's just turned 16 so it's a further education college. I'd never heard of prevent, so that's really helpful - can it be reported anonymously?

Child Protection Social Worker here; absolutely needs to be considered via PREVENT. You can anonymously report concerns to 101. The PREVENT lead would contact education and social care as a matter of course.