Please note: This Lookout contains some graphic and violent content. This is a disturbing but important notice. Our goal still remains to educate parents about dangerous content their children may be exposed to online.
The 764 Child Exploitation Network:
Online extremist group 764 has been described as “modern-day terrorism in America” by FBI Director Kash Patel as the group’s threatening online behavior has created catastrophic, real-world ramifications. Groups have highlighted the dangers . According to the Department of Justice (DOJ), “764 is a network of nihilistic violent extremists who engage in criminal conduct in the United States and abroad, seeking to destroy civilized society through the corruption and exploitation of vulnerable populations, which often include minors.” The FBI has seen a 300% increase in nihilistic violent extremism cases from September 2024 to September 2025, and in May of last year, the FBI opened 250 investigations tied to 764, with each of its 55 field offices across the U.S. handling a 764-related case. The DOJ has publicly charged at least 30 people in recent years with suspected ties to 764.
The extremist group, started by 15-year-old Bradley Cadenhead, has expanded beyond a singular group and morphed into an ideology, spreading like wildfire through the digital ether. In December 2025, the DOJ highlighted how deeply interconnected these dangerous online groups are. In a press release, the DOJ said members of Greggy’s Cult, another sadistic online operation and sex trafficking ring, became prominent members of 764, given Cadenhead’s intention of emulating Greggy’s Cult. According to Cadenhead, he wanted 764 to be like Greggy’s Cult because of the media attention for blackmailing people into self-harm and was meant to “take it to a whole different level…a lot worse.”
The Group’s Inner Workings:
Initiation into and increasing status in these groups requires the contribution of barbarous content. Members gain rank based on the “the quality and notoriety of the content they produced,” enticing the violence to escalate. One member of the 764 Network became notorious for creating online “Sewer” communities on Discord. 764 boosted its membership in “Sewer” by advertising livestreams of children engaging in self-mutilation or “cutshows” and sexually explicit activity “on cam.” FBI Assistant Director David Scott claims how, “The more gore, the more violence…that raises their stature within the groups…So it’s sort of a badge of honor within some of these groups to actually do the most harm to victims.”
Exploitation of Children:
According to the FBI, 764 members target minors between 8 and 17-years-old, specifically looking for vulnerable individuals, often targeted on popular online sites marketed for children such as Roblox and Minecraft. On these platforms, predators groom the victims, desensitize them to extremist propaganda, and eventually convince the child to move to messaging platforms like Discord and Telegram to avoid any safeguards, making it easier to isolate and exploit them. This process of grooming gains the minor’s trust, making it easier for the abuser to solicit inappropriate pictures and continue the cycle of abuse.
Once the abuser has inappropriate content, they blackmail the victims into committing extreme acts by threatening them with posting the pictures, doxxing, swatting, and more. The blackmail includes more content for the abuser to use such as: CSAM (Child Sexual Abuse Material), self-mutilation, online and in-person sexual acts, harm to animals, sexual exploitation of siblings and others, acts of violence, threats of violence, suicide, and murder.
According to a press release by the DOJ, members use child sexual abuse material (CSAM) to create digital “Lorebooks” which the groups use as digital currency to trade in encrypted “vaults.”
Not Just Behind The Screen:
The group’s effects are far-reaching and sinister. Extremists control their victims through fear and these relationships can turn dangerous quickly.
In April 2025, two leaders of 764 led a core subgroup known as “764 Inferno” where they allegedly ordered victims as young as 13 to commit acts of self-harm and engage in psychological torment and extreme violence against minors, including cutting symbols into their bodies.
In September 2024, a 17-year-old Vernon, Connecticut girl was charged with making bomb threats against a public school after she was coerced by the 764 network to do so.
Nihilistic online communities like TCC—True Crime Community who glorify mass shooters and encourage violence and self-harm—and 764 also overlap. One mom whose 13-year-old daughter died by suicide after joining TCC, stated, “I think she felt a sense of comfort with this group, with being a part of something, and I believe that they pushed her to do it…You start to meet people that will like all of your photos and will share your content and are inviting you to come to their private chats… Now you have this community that you don’t have anywhere else.”
Thankfully, 764 is on the radar of government agencies but unfortunately not on the radar of most parents. It’s imperative to keep the conservation about online safety alive.
TIPS FOR PARENTS
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Thanks for reading the latest edition of the American Parents Coalition’s The Lookout. If you have a troubling story to share about a school, doctor, company, or other institution working to usurp parents’ rights, please let us know by emailing us at outreach@americanparentscoalition.org.
