As our screens are daily filled with violent protests against federal law enforcement of immigration laws, an older form of radical violence seems to be back: the “lone wolf” amateur terrorist.

On Dec 29, John Michael Garza was charged in Texas with terrorism offences, accused of providing bomb components to individuals he is alleged to have believed were acting on behalf of Islamic State (IS). Garza was arrested after allegedly giving an undercover FBI agent instructions on how to make a bomb.

About the same time, Christian Sturdivant was charged in North Carolina with a similar offence—allegedly attempting to provide material support to IS.

The father-and-son terrorist perpetrators of the Bondi Beach, Australia massacre on Dec 14 were also inspired by IS. But unlike Garza and Sturdivant, both appear to have been born Muslims. The father, Sajid Akram was originally from Hyderabad, India, a city founded by Muslim rulers in the 16th century. In most cases of Islamist terrorism, the perpetrator is of Muslim heritage and has ancestral roots in a Muslim country.

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In contrast, the department of justice said Garza described himself as Mexican-American, and Sturdivant is reported to be the grandson of a Christian minister. Neither was born into a Muslim family or appears to be a recent immigrant. What gives?

These cases are reminiscent of Zachary Adam Chesser, who was arrested by the FBI in 2010 and charged with attempting to provide material support to al-Shabaab, the Somali terrorist group. Chesser was a middle-class, white kid from suburban Virginia who in 2008, after graduating from high school, converted to Islam and called himself “Abu Talhah al-Amrikee.”

Chesser went to George Mason University for a semester then married a Ugandan woman and they had a son. In 2010, he created his own radical Islamist website, “mujahiblog.com.” Chesser joined a New York-based group called Revolution Muslim, which according to the department of justice was founded in 2007 “to operate Internet platforms and websites to encourage Muslims to support Usama bin Laden, Anwar al-Awlaki, al-Qaeda, the Taliban and others engaged in or espousing violent jihad.” They posted Islamist content and violent videos.

In April 2010, Chesser posted online threats against the creators of the TV show South Park. In July 2010, he was denied boarding on a flight from New York to Uganda, apparently on his way to Somalia to join al-Shabaab. Shortly afterwards, he pleaded guilty to three federal felonies, including attempting to provide material support to a designated foreign terrorist organization. He was sentenced to a 25-year prison term.

Chesser was a reasonably intelligent, unremarkable young man who rejected his own family and culture and radicalized. He did so partially online, but also through meeting real people. He admired and reportedly knew Anwar al-Awlaki, the Yemeni-American al-Qaeda member killed in a 2011 drone strike under the Obama administration. He played on a soccer team organized by a member of Hizb-ut-Tahrir, whose worldview overlaps significantly with al-Qaeda’s.

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Since Chesser was arrested, the online world has grown enormously. We’ve gone from blogs on a PC to ubiquitous social media on our phones. Today, it seems possible for young people to radicalize based on religion, politics, or gender ideology without even meeting other people.

Garza and Sturdivant don’t appear to have had any contact with terrorists in person. They were both reportedly arrested after interacting with undercover officers, who they allegedly thought were IS sympathizers.

But the counter-terrorism police can’t track everyone online, and the FBI can’t be everywhere. They also have to be careful not to cross the line from stopping terrorist acts to entrapment.

Today, kids are interacting with AI avatars so convincing they might as well be real. And who controls them? People with financial motives at best, political or even terrorist goals at worst.

With all the time they spend online, our children are vulnerable as never before. Active online radicalization methods will only get more sophisticated. Perhaps the best thing parents can do is spend more time with their children, in person, and give them more chances to meet real people and less screen time. As the Bible says, “evil associations corrupt good manners.”