Child grooming: characteristics, risk factors, and prevention

Permesso Negato ETS · 2026-08-27 · IT · verified record

Themes: Online marketplaces · Online platforms · Search services

Grooming, or online solicitation, is a process through which an adult establishes a relationship of trust with a minor, often through the internet or other digital tools, with the aim of sexually exploiting or manipulating them. This process generally takes place gradually and strategically, making it difficult for the victim to recognize the danger in the early stages. Grooming can develop through social media, chats, online gaming platforms, or messaging applications. The perpetrator may pretend to be a peer or a trustworthy person, showing interest, understanding, and affection in order to create an emotional bond with the minor. Later, they may introduce sexually themed conversations, request intimate images, or try to arrange offline meetings. Unfortunately, this phenomenon is still poorly perceived: people talk about how widespread and dangerous it is only when particularly striking cases are reported and amplified by the news, while at the same time there are few opportunities for real prevention. This poor perception does not concern only parents, but minors themselves, who often wrongly believe that they have the situation under control and can easily manage any contacts they receive inside chats, live streams, or other platforms. Groomers are often more organized and structured than one might think: as reported by various information reports, they are even specialized by specific age groups. Below is an illustration of the steps usually followed by groomers: Report of Associazione Meter (https://associazionemeter.org/chi-siamo/report-annuali/); Minori online - Fondazione Carolina (https://www.minorionline.com). As described in the image illustrated above, in the selection phase the best victim to "attack" is studied and, once the target's age is understood, they are "followed" online by a specially trained groomer. Each age in fact has its own particular slang, most-used emoji, fashions, and trending personalities. Attackers/groomers are particularly prepared on these aspects, so that they appear in every respect to be peers and can pass themselves off as such without difficulty. For this reason, the belief, often held by minors, that they can still recognize whether a person who contacts them is telling the truth about who they say they are is mistaken.…