Questions of the Week: Are games being used by terrorists?

The headlines were sensational. Fox News: “Joystick Jihad.” The Daily Express: “Did Isis terrorists use a PlayStation 4 to plot Paris massacre in the streets?”

They all seemed to suggest that a games console had played an integral part in planning the Paris terror attacks. Fuelling this were comments made by Belgium's deputy prime minister, Jan Jambon, about potential tactics of Islamic State and reports that a PS4 console had been recovered from the apartment of one of the suspected attackers.

PS4 is, according to Jambon, harder to keep track of than popular messaging service Whatsapp.

Suddenly, there were articles quoting experts talking about how attackers could use all sorts of ways to communicate in games without ever uttering a word: spelling out plans in a hail of bullets was one suggestion.

But before you bin your games console, is there any evidence that one was used as a method of communication for the attackers?

Not really. Jambon’s comments had been made in an interview a few days before the Paris attacks, speculating on the tactics that Islamic State is thought to be using, and there isn’t any firm evidence that a console was found inside the apartment.

Even if that confirmation came, it wouldn't be unusual to find a games console in the apartment of a person in their 20s. Sony has sold some 30 million PS4 consoles worldwide, and its target market is 18-34-year-olds.

What is fact is that the games do allow people to communicate. There are chat services built into Sony’s PlayStation Network platform that allow friends to chat to each other, with 65 million active users. That’s before you get into the in-game chat services that encourage players to communicate while battling online.

This is nothing new to the authorities; the intelligence files released by Edward Snowden showed the NSA was looking in on World of Warcraft and other online games in an attempt to eavesdrop on potential terrorist groups.

Gaining access

True, these platforms are difficult to monitor. They are encrypted and despite attempts by US intelligence agencies to gain access to online chat systems, as of today nothing official has been granted.

There have been reports of people making contact with Islamic extremists via the console. But the most high- profile case to date – a 14- year-old Austrian who downloaded bomb-making plans – resulted in a two-year sentence. It can hardly be described as being kept a secret. So we shouldn’t jump to judgment straight away.

Still, for those who think that videogames represent all that has gone wrong with society, this is yet more fuel for the fire.