Fraud and Cyber Crime
What is Online Grooming?
Online grooming is the act in which groomers use social media and/or gaming platforms to create a bond with a young or vulnerable person to conduct sexual or illegal activities. Illegal activities can include, county lines, stealing or recruiting others. There is a process which groomers will take to create the bonds and ‘loyalty’ with the victim.
Targeting them starts with the groomer gaining an understanding of the young or vulnerable persons personal circumstances and what their home/school life is like. They do this through social media and/or gaming platforms whereby, if accounts aren’t private and have necessary security settings in place, a groomer will look through the accounts. They do this to create a persona to ‘identify’ with the intended target.
When the victim is being put through the process, they can have a mix of emotions and can display a number of different traits that may cause concern. When the Grooming process starts and is in the earlier stages you may find that the young or vulnerable person,
- May appear happier
- Having unexplained gifts or money
- Spends more time on social media or gaming platforms.
In the later stages they may seem,
- Distant and unwilling to engage with family or friends
- Become irritable quickly and have extreme views around certain topics
- Going out with unknown ‘friends’ for long periods of time or going missing.
These are just some of the signs of grooming in the victims. It is important to know that it is not the young or vulnerable person’s fault. They will be unaware of the Groomers intentions and will be given a false sense of security and friendship.
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