The Islamic State group is well known for being technology savvy, and now it has launched a mobile app aimed at children.

Key points: Alphabet app game Huroof appeared two days ago

Alphabet app game Huroof appeared two days ago App uses pictures of canons, rifles, rockets and bullets beside letters

App uses pictures of canons, rifles, rockets and bullets beside letters Identifying and blocking IS accounts takes time, and for every blocked account another pops up

There are pictures of tanks, guns, and rockets, all apparently designed to help lure a new generation of fighters.

When the app Huroof — an Arabic word for alphabet — launches, its appearance looks harmless at first, colourful and bright like any other children's app.

But the alphabet game uses pictures of canons, rifles, rockets and bullets beside letters.

It is the group's first crack at indoctrination for toddlers via an app.

Huroof first appeared two days ago and though some download sites have blocked it, the World Today found it inside messages on a well-known platform.

Identifying and blocking these sorts of accounts takes time, and for every blocked account, another can just as easily be set up.

Telegram, one of the big instant messaging platforms, claiming 100 million users, published a tweet that said "this week we blocked 78 ISIS-related channels across 12 languages".

'It's like a hydra; you shut down one and they pop up'

Anthony Cuthbertson, a technology reporter for Newsweek, spends time on apps in groups that ISIS and its supporters have founded.

"It's just another tool in their armoury, and apps like Telegram and Wickr and Kik, they all offer methods of both communicating securely amongst members but also sharing propaganda and instructional videos and also just as a tool for recruitment," he said.

Space to play or pause, M to mute, left and right arrows to seek, up and down arrows for volume. Listen Duration: 3 minutes 44 seconds 3 m 44 s ISIS app teaches children warfare and the Arabic alphabet Download 6.8 MB

"And you see them on Twitter, you see the cyber caliphate there, but they were being shut down a lot. They've now moved to Telegram and from there they're moving to other platforms."

Brendan Koerner from Wired Magazine said IS's strategic marketing plan for online warfare origins can be traced to a report written a decade ago.

"If you go back to a document called The Management of Savagery, it's an e-book — by a jihadist cleric who wrote under the pseudonym Abu Bakr Naji — that came out in 2004," he said.

"He really made a point of saying that the West has been so successful in its efforts to subjugate the Muslim world because of its mastery of media, and that jihadists had to study Western media practices and techniques if they wanted to triumph in this clash of civilisations.

Mr Koerner said Islamic State media now rarely uploaded videos of executions and other atrocities.

"Many of them are portraying everyday life in the Islamic State as this blissful, wonderful experience," he said.

"They tailor all their videos to specific audiences around the world, both through language and also the customs and aesthetics of these videos.

"You may have one video targeted towards Bosnian recruits, that's in Bosnian and takes into account Bosnian customary practices, and another targeted towards say, Filipino communities.

"They're very savvy about narrow casting and tailoring their content to specific audiences around the globe."

And now they are targeting children, or as Islamic State refers to them, "cubs".