ISIS using social media to recruit young members

The terror group ISIS is attracting a lot of attention, and some new recruits, by using a variety of postings on social media sites.

"ISIS is now promoting itself on YouTube, Facebook and blogs in a whole new way, and the savvy that they are showing when it comes to the utilization of social media in order to bring people to their cause is unprecedented," said terrorism and law enforcement expert Randy Sutton.

He said ISIS is concentrating on recruiting young people in their teens and 20s to join its fight, "because they are impressionable, they are searching for something to believe in, they're searching for a family group if you will, one of the reason people join criminal gangs is because they believe they're joining something that's greater than themselves."

Sutton added when you add the religious aspect into this into the mix, "it's fuel for disaster."

"This is the first terror organization that's pitching the message that it's cool to join them," he said. "I've heard it referred to as sexy jihadism, I don't know about you, but that's one of the most frightening, conflicting terms that I can imagine, but that's what it's become."

Sutton said when you're talking about recruiting people to fight overseas, against their own country, this has never been done before in this way, and it means social media will have to be monitored, and there will be questions about the rights of citizens, as well as protecting other citizens from harm.

"This is scary because the people that use social media the most is this present generation of 17, 18, 19-year-old people. They're on Facebook all the time, they're cruising YouTube," he said.

He pointed out many kids that are watching execution videos on YouTube "are now seeing this not as the cruelty and the depravity that it truly is, but something cool to join in and to be a part of. That's probably the most frightening aspect of this."

Sutton also said the ISIS push using social media is also aimed at people with mental health issues.

"They see this as a way to become a part of something that they view as greater than themselves," he said.

The bottom line, according to Sutton, is ISIS is becoming the new face of terrorism.

"They're the big boy on the block now," he said. "And when you're a susceptible person, you want to join up with them."