A mysterious, shadowy group has been appearing online recently, and it has parents and law enforcement concerned about potential child exploitation. The group, known as 764, is a decentralized network operating across the U.S. and internationally. And while the FBI has urged parents and kids to be cautious, experts say tracking down the perpetrators is easier said than done.

What’s 764?
This international online organization “operates at the intersection of violent extremism, child sexual exploitation and other forms of extreme violence, including animal cruelty, self-harm and assisted suicide,” said the Global Network on Extremism & Technology. Those who identify with 764 are classified by experts as nihilistic violent extremists, “characterized by the encouragement, glorification or engagement in acts of extreme violence without a coherent ideological framework,” said the nonpartisan think tank Vision of Humanity. 

Victims of 764 are often “pressured to send sexually explicit videos and photos, which are later used to blackmail them into extreme and violent acts,” said The Baltimore Banner. Most are victimized on online gaming platforms and social media websites.

Many of the victims may be “dealing with one or more vulnerabilities: neurodiversity, eating disorders, social isolation, mental illness, family problems” and are then exploited, said Vision of Humanity. Criminal cases linked to 764 have been opened in numerous states, including Florida, Georgia, Massachusetts, Maryland and Texas, as well as Canada. The latter has since designated 764 as a terrorist group, and New Zealand did the same.

How’s law enforcement fighting back?
The FBI and local police organizations are working to shut down the 764 groups, and “every FBI field office in the country is now involved in tracking the network,” said CBS News. At least 450 cases nationwide are “under investigation, with authorities classifying the activity as domestic terrorism.” 

To protect kids, the FBI is “urging families to look for behavioral changes that could signal a child is being targeted,” said CBS News. The FBI is also encouraging parents to “take proactive steps,” including monitoring children’s activity online and reporting suspicious behavior to authorities.

President Donald Trump has nothing if not an active imagination. Since taking office, he has pitched multiple ostensibly revolutionary products and plans to the nation. Some are material planks of his America First agenda, while others are seemingly speculative flights of questionable feasibility. 

Golden Dome
As one of the first executive orders of his second term, Trump in January 2025 directed the implementation of a “next-generation missile defense shield” for the U.S. “against ballistic, hypersonic, advanced cruise missiles” and “other aerial attacks,” said the White House. Dubbed the Iron Dome for America at the time, there has been “little progress” made on the since-renamed Golden Dome system, with “internal misalignment on the administration’s plans for the architecture causing delays,” said National Defense. 

At the heart of this defense system would be “space-based interceptors” designed to “find and destroy enemy missiles and drones in the early stages,” said Gizmodo. That technology, however, “does not exist yet and is deemed theoretically ineffective and impractical.” 

Freedom Cities
In the lead-up to the 2024 election, Trump campaigned on establishing what he called Freedom Cities, or tracts of federal land where businesses could “focus on technological innovation,” said Politifact. Trump’s advisers framed the proposal as comparable to “Lincoln’s campaign for the transcontinental railroad” and “Roosevelt’s vision for a national park service,” said Politico. 

By March 2025, interest groups had begun “drafting Congressional legislation” to advance the development of cities “where anti-aging clinical trials, nuclear reactor startups and building construction can proceed without having to get prior approval,” said Wired. Despite his utopian promises, Trump “hasn’t lent any rhetorical weight to the idea recently,” said Politifact in February. 

Medbed
In September 2025, the president shared a since-deleted video to Truth Social promoting “access to new medical technology” in the form of a “cure-all bed” with roots in “conspiratorial corners of the internet,” said CNN. Every American will have “their own medbed card” granting access to medbed hospitals, an AI-generated Trump said in footage “intended to resemble a Fox News segment” hosted by daughter-in-law Lara Trump. But “no one has an actual photo” of a medbed, said McGill University’s Office for Science and Society. “Let’s be clear, they don’t exist.”

A firefighter works to extinguish a blaze following a Russian strike in Kyiv, Ukraine. Russia launched more than 700 drones and missiles into Ukraine overnight, killing at least 18 people in what officials say is the deadliest attack in months.
Serhii Okunev / AFP / Getty Images

The fantasy genre is hard to define. But to paraphrase Justice Potter Stewart, you know it when you see it. For this list, we have excluded animated films like “Spirited Away,” as well as those that feel more comfortably placed in the science fiction or superhero genres.

‘The Wizard of Oz’ (1939)
In MGM’s cultural juggernaut, young Dorothy awakens after a tornado strike to find her house moving through the air and into the magical Land of Oz. This seemingly ageless classic “genuinely hits on childish delights” and fears with “effortless grace, warmth and imagination,” said Alan Morrison at Empire. (HBO Max)

‘The NeverEnding Story’ (1984)
Director Wolfgang Petersen’s film (pictured above), adapted from the first half of Michael Ende’s 1979 novel, follows Bastian Balthazar Bux, who starts reading a book about a malevolent force (The Nothing) devouring the realm of Fantasia, only to have the narrative come to life. The film also contains an important lesson: “Keep going, keep forging onward, don’t stop to mope, or you will sink into the slough of despondence,” said Peter Bradshaw at The Guardian. (Tubi)

‘The Princess Bride’ (1987)
Director Rob Reiner’s often-hilarious adventure uses a familiar story-within-a-story structure. Peter Falk plays a man reading a story to his grandson, about Princess Buttercup, who falls in love with her farmhand, Westley. The movie is “generally well-received by everybody who has ever seen it but given the august profile of a universal cultural touchstone by those of a certain age,” said Tim Brayton at Alternate Ending. (Disney+)