Editor’s note: This article treats a public TikTok video as a lead source and personal account. NewsForBC has not independently verified every allegation in that family’s case. The broader threat named in the video — 764 — is independently documented by law-enforcement and public-safety sources linked below.
A recent TikTok video from a B.C. father has put a disturbing name in front of more parents: 764.
In the video, the father describes his family’s experience after his daughter entered the youth mental-health system following self-harm. He alleges that an online network was influencing her, that she remained in contact with people connected to that world, and that institutions focused too quickly on family conflict while missing the larger online coercion pattern.
NewsForBC is not in a position to verify every detail of that family’s case from the video alone. But the broader danger he names — 764 — is real enough that the RCMP, FBI, U.S. Department of Justice and Public Safety Canada have all issued warnings or taken action.
That should alarm every parent in British Columbia.
According to the FBI, “764” and similar violent online networks target minors and vulnerable people around the world. The networks use threats, blackmail and manipulation to coerce victims into sexual material, self-harm, animal cruelty and even suicide. The RCMP warns that violent online groups are targeting children and youth on widely accessible platforms and pushing them toward self-harm, violence and child sexual exploitation material.
Canada has gone even further: Public Safety Canada now lists 764 as a terrorist entity.
This is not ordinary teen drama. It is not merely “too much screen time.” It is not something that can be solved by pretending every crisis is only a family issue, only a diagnosis issue, or only a school discipline issue.
The most troubling part of the father’s warning is the suggestion that online predators may understand the system well enough to weaponize it. If a vulnerable child knows exactly what words will trigger a hospital, school, police or child-protection response, and if bad actors online are coaching that child, then the adults around the child may be manipulated into fighting each other while the predator network stays hidden.
That is the nightmare scenario: parents, doctors, nurses, teachers, police and social workers all acting in good faith — but looking in the wrong direction.
British Columbia needs to take this seriously
A solution-oriented response should start with five practical reforms.
First, every youth mental-health intake in B.C. involving self-harm, sudden personality change, online sexual exploitation, animal cruelty, violent ideation or unusual scripted language should include an online coercion and sextortion screening. That does not mean blaming the child. It means asking whether someone outside the family is manipulating the child.
Second, hospitals and child-protection workers need training on groups like 764. The RCMP and FBI are already warning the public. That information should be built into front-line practice, especially at youth psychiatric units and emergency departments.
Third, parents should not be treated as disposable unless there is clear evidence they are the threat. In many online exploitation cases, parents may be the first people raising the alarm. If institutions reflexively push parents away, they may remove the very people most able to supply screenshots, usernames, chat logs, platform names and behavioural history.
Fourth, B.C. needs a clear evidence-preservation protocol for families. Parents should be told how to save screenshots, account names, URLs, device data and threat messages without engaging predators directly or contaminating an investigation.
Fifth, government agencies need accountability when they miss the online component. Families should not be trapped in privacy walls and bureaucratic stonewalling when trying to understand how a child was lost, exploited or harmed.
This is where a serious public conversation is needed. Government overreach is not only about what the state does too aggressively. It is also about what the state does blindly — when large institutions use their power to separate families, impose orders or control information without fully understanding the modern online threat environment.
The old model assumed danger was usually in the home, the street, or the schoolyard. The new danger may be in a child’s phone, hidden inside private groups, encrypted chats, gaming communities and social platforms designed to keep adults out.
That does not mean every case is 764. It does not mean every allegation in a viral video is proven. It does mean that B.C. institutions can no longer afford to be naive.
Parents need to know the name. Schools need to know the warning signs. Hospitals need to ask better questions. Police and child-protection agencies need to share intelligence faster. And government needs to remember that families are not always the obstacle — often, they are the front line.
For parents, the practical advice is simple but urgent: if your child suddenly begins self-harming, using strange scripted language, hiding online contacts, showing fear of online exposure, receiving threats, harming animals, or being pressured to create sexual or violent content, treat it as a possible exploitation situation. Preserve evidence. Do not confront suspected predators directly. Contact police or Cybertip.ca.
There are moments when a society has to stop pretending a problem is isolated. 764 is one of those moments.
The question for British Columbia is whether our institutions will adapt fast enough — or whether more families will be left saying the warning signs were there all along.