A concerned British Prime Minister David Cameron today said the programmes that focus on de- radicalising boys must turn their attention to girls too as he sought help from parents in tackling the "really big issue" facing the nation.
"In the past the danger has been more about boys but we can now see that is changing," he said.
Cameron's comments came as the families of three UK schoolgirls missing in Syria appealed to them to return home and after three young British men were stopped from travelling to Syria from Turkey over the weekend.
Shamima Begum, Amira Abase, both 15, and Kadiza Sultana, 16 took flights to Istanbul last month, from where it is feared they travelled to join Islamic State militants in strife-torn Syria.
The struggle to prevent young people from joining the Islamic State could go on for "not just years, but possibly decades", he warned.
Cameron said that all parents had responsibilities towards their children. But he added: "I think my message to everyone is that we are all in this struggle against radicalisation together.
"We can't entirely say it's a matter for the police or the border force, everyone has to be involved in spotting signs of radicalisation and combating those signs", he told the BBC.
He said that programmes focusing on de-radicalising must look at everyone: "Clearly that means girls as well as boys".
"It is a really big issue for our whole country to get to grips with and work out how we put a stop to it," he added.
Cameron said it was a "very frightening prospect" that the young girls would leave Britain - "where you can have real opportunities and real freedoms" - to travel to Syria to be part of an "appalling death cult".
Young people who attempt to travel to Syria to join Islamic State are "deeply misguided", Cameron said separately.
He told BuzzFeed that anyone attempting such a journey should be returned to the UK so they could "get this radical nonsense out of their heads".
The three young men, two aged 17 and one 19, from north- west London, were arrested after being returned to the UK and released on bail.
Cameron said it was right that the three teenage boys had been arrested, adding that he now wanted to see the three girls brought back also.
Speaking about young British people who wanted to join IS, he said: "I think they are deeply misguided and they are potentially going to join a criminal organisation which could make them part of a criminal or terrorist conspiracy.
"We want to get them back and try to get this radical nonsense out of their heads.
About 600 Britons are believed to have travelled to Syria and Iraq since the conflict began, according to Metropolitan Police Assistant Commissioner Mark Rowley.
The Home Office estimates around half of those have returned.
