{"id":2694,"date":"2024-09-20T16:47:35","date_gmt":"2024-09-20T14:47:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/vivreaveclesecrans.actioninnocence.org\/?page_id=2694"},"modified":"2024-10-14T09:54:32","modified_gmt":"2024-10-14T07:54:32","slug":"harmful-online-encounters-grooming","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/vivreaveclesecrans.actioninnocence.org\/en\/living-with-screens\/harmful-online-encounters-grooming\/","title":{"rendered":"Harmful online encounters, grooming"},"content":{"rendered":"<h3>What is grooming?<\/h3>\n<p>Grooming means contacting and seeking to establish a relationship with children and teenagers who are under the legal age of sexual consent (16 years old) to achieve sexual pleasure or to have a relationship of a sexual nature.<\/p>\n<h3>How is the first contact made?<\/h3>\n<p>Grooming can occur in several ways. In most cases, an individual may first try to contact a child using an online service. For example, they may try to join a discussion on a social network, a chat room or an online video game platform, while maintaining their identity or pretending to be the child\u2019s age.<\/p>\n<h3>Building trust:<\/h3>\n<p>The person may try to establish a relationship of trust with the child.<br \/>\nFor instance, they may:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>ask questions about the child\u2019s favourite video games, or about topics they follow on the Internet and social media.<\/li>\n<li>develop a relationship around topics of common interest.<\/li>\n<li>gradually ask the child how they are feeling, try to find out if they are having difficulties in their friendships or in their relationship with their parents.<\/li>\n<li>if the child is in difficulty, acknowledge their feelings.<\/li>\n<li>position themselves as a trusted confidant.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Once trust has been built up and a friendship or romantic relationship has been established, the person may seek to ask more intimate questions.<\/p>\n<h3>Questions may include:<\/h3>\n<ul>\n<li>Do you like to sleep naked?<\/li>\n<li>Have you ever kissed someone?<\/li>\n<li>Do you wear bras or thongs?<\/li>\n<li>Do you have pubic hair?<\/li>\n<li>Are your breasts growing?<\/li>\n<li>Have you ever measured your penis?<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h3>If the child lets their guard down, the person may try to proceed further by:<\/h3>\n<ul>\n<li>asking the child to send intimate pictures.<\/li>\n<li>sending pictures of their own genitals.<\/li>\n<li>suggesting an online meeting (for example, a video session).<\/li>\n<li>suggesting a face-to-face meeting.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h3>You have reasons for concern if your child:<\/h3>\n<ul>\n<li>spends more and more time online and neglects their other activities.<\/li>\n<li>spends less time with their friends.<\/li>\n<li>often talks to someone you do not know.<\/li>\n<li>quickly switches their screen image if you are nearby.<\/li>\n<li>receives letters, parcels or phone calls from people you do not know.<\/li>\n<li>has money that you did not give them or clothes and accessories that you did not buy them.<\/li>\n<li>often misses school.<\/li>\n<li>is getting lower grades.<\/li>\n<li>becomes aggressive.<\/li>\n<li>becomes isolated and withdrawn.<\/li>\n<li>shows signs of low self-esteem.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h3>If you think that your child is a victim of grooming:<\/h3>\n<ul>\n<li>Tell them about your fears and worries.<\/li>\n<li>Ask them for more details about the relationship they have built.<\/li>\n<li>Listen without judgement.<\/li>\n<li>Ask them if you can see their conversations with the person.<\/li>\n<li>Remember that, depending on the situation, the law can protect your child.<\/li>\n<li>With their consent, collect and keep evidence (photos or screenshots of the person\u2019s and your child\u2019s profile, and content that they have shared).<\/li>\n<li>You can call the nearest police department to report the situation.<\/li>\n<li>Depending on the advice of the police:\n<ul>\n<li>Go to the police department with or without your child, with the evidence.<\/li>\n<li>File a complaint.<\/li>\n<li>Report and\/or block the person\u2019s account.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h3>To help you maintain a consistent approach:<\/h3>\n<ul>\n<li>Remember that your child is a victim; making them feel guilty will not solve the situation and will prevent them from feeling confident enough to tell you and give you as much information as possible.<\/li>\n<li>Be aware that it may be difficult for your child to accept the end of a friendship or romantic relationship that they may believe to have been genuine and sincere.<\/li>\n<li>Take the time to explain to your child that:\n<ul>\n<li>what the person is doing is illegal, which is why you are asking for police assistance.<\/li>\n<li>the law is there to protect them.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li>Offer your child the opportunity to receive psychological support.<\/li>\n<\/ul>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>What is grooming? Grooming means contacting and seeking to establish a relationship with children and teenagers who are under the [&hellip;]<\/p>","protected":false},"author":9,"featured_media":0,"parent":1774,"menu_order":6,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-2694","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/vivreaveclesecrans.actioninnocence.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/2694","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/vivreaveclesecrans.actioninnocence.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/vivreaveclesecrans.actioninnocence.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vivreaveclesecrans.actioninnocence.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/9"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vivreaveclesecrans.actioninnocence.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2694"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/vivreaveclesecrans.actioninnocence.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/2694\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4843,"href":"https:\/\/vivreaveclesecrans.actioninnocence.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/2694\/revisions\/4843"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vivreaveclesecrans.actioninnocence.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1774"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/vivreaveclesecrans.actioninnocence.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2694"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}