James Foley execution 're-enacted' by child on Twitter

Social media sites have vowed to halt the spread of extremist propaganda after disturbing images of a child performing a ‘re-enactment" of the James Foley execution was posted on Twitter.

One of the images, posted by pro-IS (Islamic State) Time of the Caliphate account, shows a young child in a black balaclava holding a knife and a blonde-haired doll in an orange jumpsuit, and bear the message: ‘Teach your children to cut necks, tomorrow there will be a lot of rotten heads."

A second picture shows the doll lying on the ground with its head cut off.

A leading figure in propaganda and communication called the images ‘child abuse, pure and simple."

The ‘re-enactment" images have been called ‘child abuse" by one expert (Picture: Twitter)

There are conces extreme groups are targeting younger demographics through social media (Picture: Twitter)

‘They are a way of exploiting the original death imagery in a new, creative and utterly foul manner," Professor Nicholas O"Shaughnessy, of Queen Mary University in London, told MailOnline.

‘It is so utterly sick and perverted and depraved that it guarantees global visibility."

Experts have voiced conces that radical groups are targeting younger demographics through social media.

13-year-old schoolboy Younes Abaaoud is believed to be the IS"s youngest recruit after he left Belgium for Syria earlier this month.

One of the youngest foreign fighters we know of, Younes Abaaoud, who was 13 when he left Belgium to join ISIS. pic.twitter.com/kwyygMKYYJ — Shiraz Maher (@ShirazMaher) August 19, 2014

Meanwhile, social media chiefs have vowed to do what they can to disrupt the spread of extremist propaganda.

‘We have been and are actively suspending accounts as we discover them related to this graphic imagery," said Twitter CEO Dick Costolo.