Child Sexual Exploitation (CSE)

What is online grooming?

Online grooming is a form of child sexual exploitation where someone builds an emotional connection with a child under the age of 18 to gain their trust for the purposes of sexual abuse, sexual exploitation or trafficking.

Children and young people can be groomed online or face-to-face, by a stranger or by someone they know – for example a family member, friend or professional. Groomers may be male or female and belong to any age group.

An online groomer may attempt to gain the trust of their victims by using fake profile pictures, pretending to have similar interests, offering gifts and complementing the child.

Some may try to set up a meeting, or even blackmail children by threatening to publish the content online.

The exploitation may involve penetrative sexual acts, sexual touching, masturbation and the misuse of sexual images (on the internet or by mobile phone).

It is an offence for anyone to have any sexual activity with a person under the age of 16.

Child Sexual Exploitation videos

What is online grooming?

An online groomer may attempt to gain the trust of their victims by using fake profile pictures, pretending to have similar interests, offering gifts and complementing the child.

Some may try to set up a meeting, or even blackmail children by threatening to publish the content online.

The exploitation may involve penetrative sexual acts, sexual touching, masturbation and the misuse of sexual images (on the internet or by mobile phone).

It is an offence for anyone to have any sexual activity with a person under the age of 16.

Where does online grooming happen?

Online Grooming can occur anywhere where a private conversation is being held. This not only includes websites, online forums and social media but extends to online gaming (where chat facilities are enabled), mobile apps – basically anywhere with a chat facility.

Chat facilities can give an impression of talking to someone in private and this can lead to people building up a relationship and confiding in each other.

Be on guard against groomers on:

Social networking sites (eg. Facebook, Twitter), including online dating sites
Chatrooms
Skype
Mobile apps such as: Whatsapp, Kik, Viber, Snapchat and dating/meetup apps
Online gaming chats
Instant messaging apps

How does grooming happen online?

Communication on the internet is public and perceived as anonymous which can dupe children into a false sense of security – people feel less inhibited online and more free to talk in a way that they wouldn’t in person. It is important to remember that it is very difficult to verify that the person you are talking to online, is actually who they say they are.

Groomers sometimes use false identities or fake profiles and photos to talk to young people online. They can be skilled at getting victims to disclose as much information as possible about where they live, their phone number, what their hobbies are and even sexual experiences from children. This could potentially escalate into showing examples of pornography in order to help persuade a child to take part in sexual activities.

A groomer may pose as another child in order to gain the trust of their victim. Often a groomer will pretend to be a person that understand the child’s concerns and may give their victim the impression that they are one of the few friends they can trust. This can result in a child letting their guard down and disclosing things or taking part in activities that they would never usually do.

A groomer may force a child to do any of the following:

Submit nude pictures or videos of themselves online
Exchange sexually explicit messages
Take part in sexual activities via a webcam or smartphone

Groomers may force a child to take part in sexual abuse by threatening to send copies of pictures, videos or conversations to the child’s families or friends. Images or videos may continue to be shared long after the sexual abuse has stopped.

Signs a child may be groomed online

Sexting – sending sexual text messages
Child is upset, withdrawn or angry after texting or using the internet
Secretive about who they are interacting with while online or on the phone
Have lots of new phone numbers, email addresses, social media friends or texts while online or using a device
Having new phones or devices that you have not brought them and cannot be accounted for
Switching screens when a parent enters the room

How parents can protect their children online

Keep your computer in a family room or shared space in the house, so that you can supervise what your child is doing online
Encourage your child to approach you whenever they come across anything online that makes them uncomfortable
Use special filtering programmes to block your child from accessing anything that may be sexual or adult in nature
Create a social networking profile and make sure your child adds you as a “friend” so that you can monitor any activity they may become involved in online
Talk to your child about how to stay safe online and educate them about some of the tricks groomers may use to win their trust. Discourage them from revealing any personal details such as their name, location or age.

How children can stay safe online

Never give out any personal details to people you do not know online, such as your name, age, phone number, or where you live.
Ensure that your online account privacy settings are set correctly, to stop ‘strangers’ from accessing your account or talking to you.
Even if a stranger seems trustworthy online or tells you that they are the same age as you, never let your guard down when you interact with them because it is easy for someone to lie about their age online and set up false profiles with fake pictures.
If an online “friend” or stranger makes you feel uncomfortable online or tries to persuade you to do things that you feel are wrong, tell your parents or a trusted adult that you know straight away.
Sometimes a person may seem friendly and normal at first, but then gradually changes the tone of the conversation until it becomes more sexual or threatening in nature. If you feel that a conversation is becoming more and more uncomfortable, do not be afraid to cut off all contact from the person and tell a trusted adult straight away.
Never share sexual pictures, or videos of yourself online. It is also a very bad idea to take part in sexual conversations either by text or online. Once you send anything online, it is no longer in your control and can continue to be shared for a long time. This can happen no matter how “private” the platform is online. If people search for your name or a nickname you use, a lot of what you post online could be found. People could copy, share or discuss things you’ve posted.
Never agree to meet someone who you have spoken to online. There is no way of telling if they are who they claim to be or what will happen if you turn up to meet them.
Don’t allow someone to encourage you into doing something that you wouldn’t normally do or is unsafe – even if it seems like harmless fun. It’s very easy for situations to change and turn into something more dangerous.
Always remember that online ‘relationships’ are not real – they play upon your imagination of what a relationship could be like – the ideal romance, the ideal friendship and the ideal partner. The reality is never the same as what you will imagine.

How to stay safe on social media

Snapchat

Snapchat is a mobile messaging application that lets you share photos, videos, text and drawings that expire and automatically delete themselves after a set time, ranging from a few seconds up to 24 hours. It’s free to download and send messages using the service and it’s also become insanely popular with adults and teenagers alike.

Snapchat has many features but one that has raised concerns is ‘Snap Maps’ safety experts fear it could be used to stalk or bully others. Given the accuracy of the feature users are being discouraged to use it for privacy concerns.

The ‘Snap Maps’ feature allows other people to see exactly where you are in real time by using your Snapchat avatar on an interactive world map. It uses data such as your location, speed of travel and phone usage to work out where you are and what you’re doing, and shares this information with your friends on an interactive map.

There are a couple of setting changes you can make to ensure you are safe. Snap Map is off by default, and is an opt-in feature which can be switched off at any time.

When you first open Snap Map, you can decide who can see your location. If you change your mind, you can alter this on your Snapchat settings. Click on the cog icon, click on “see my location” and choose the setting which suits you. You can also change this on the Snap Map itself by clicking on the cog in the right hand corner of the screen, or not use it at all by selecting ‘ghost mode’ which hides you from using the feature at all.

Facebook

Facebook is a social networking website and service where users can post comments, share photographs and links to news or other interesting content on the Web, play games, chat live, and even stream live video. Shared content can be made publicly accessible, or it can be shared only among a select group of friends or family, or with a single person.

Facebook has security options built in, but they can be confusing and hard to find. One simple way to find them is to go to the Help Center on Facebook, where it will walk you through best safety practices and point you in the direction of changing your security settings. Or you can go directly to your account’s security settings by clicking “Account” (on the top right-hand corner of each page) and choosing “Privacy Settings.” From there you can edit a number of your security settings, including contact information and applications.

Be careful about with the amount of information you share about yourself and with whom you share it. Remember that – without strict privacy settings – anyone can see your Facebook profile information. And just as you wouldn’t give a complete stranger your telephone number, address and other personal information, you should be careful what you share on Facebook.

Twitter

Twitter is a social network and real-time communication service launched in 2006 and used by millions of people and organisations to quickly share and discover information. Users can access the site via the web and mobile devices to exchange frequent bite-size updates of information called ‘tweets’ which are messages of up to 140 characters long that anyone can send or read. These messages or tweets are public by default and visible to all those who are following the tweeter. Twitter allows you to follow other users you are interested in so that you’ll see their updates on your home page, which is an aggregate feed of all the accounts you’re following.

To help keep your account secure, we recommend the following best practices:

Use a strong password that you don’t reuse on other websites.
Use login verification.
Require email and phone number to request a reset password link or code.
Be cautious of suspicious links and always make sure you’re on twitter.com before you enter your login information.
Never give your username and password out to third parties, especially those promising to get you followers, make you money, or verify you.
Make sure your computer software, including your browser, is up-to-date with the most recent upgrades and anti-virus software.