Child grooming

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This article is about the act of befriending and influencing a child with the intent of sexually abusing the child. For grooming to improve appearance or hygiene, see Personal grooming.

Child grooming, in the context of this article, refers to actions deliberately undertaken with the aim of befriending and establishing an emotional connection with a child, in order to lower the child's inhibitions in preparation for sexual abuse of the child.

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[edit] Overview

The deliberate actions taken by an adult to form a trusting relationship with a child, with the intent of later having sexual contact is known as child grooming. The act of grooming a child sexually may include activities that are legal in and of themselves, but later lead to sexual contact. Typically, this is done to gain the child's trust as well as the trust of those responsible for the child's well-being. Furthermore, research[citation needed] has shown children are less likely to report a crime if it involves someone that he or she knows, trusts, and cares about. Additionally, a trusting relationship with the family means the child's parents will be less likely to believe any potential accusations. [1]

[edit] Examples of grooming activities

  • Taking an undue interest in someone's child (having a "special" friend)
  • Giving gifts or money to the child for no apparent reason
  • Showing pornography to the child (illegal in many jurisdictions)
  • Talking about sexual topics that are not age-appropriate
  • Invading the child's privacy (e.g. walking in on him/her in the bathroom)
  • Hugging, kissing, or other physical contact even when the child does not want this attention
  • Allowing the child to get away with inappropriate behavior
  • Talking to the child about problems that would normally be discussed with adults (e.g. marital problems)[2][3][4]

[edit] Child grooming over the Internet

Child sex abusers find the internet an easier place to take part in a variety of child sexual abuse activity including contact with children due to the anonymity of the medium. Sexual grooming of children also occurs on the Internet. Some abusers will pose as children online and make arrangements to meet with them in person. According to a 2003 New Zealand study, 23% of 7-10 year olds and 37% of those 16 or older reported meeting someone face to face that they met over the Internet.[5]

In 2003, MSN implemented restrictions in their chat rooms to help protect children from adults seeking sexual conversations with them. In 2005, Yahoo! chat rooms were investigated by the New York State attorney general's office for allowing users to create rooms whose names suggested that they were being used for this purpose. That October, Yahoo! agreed to "implement policies and procedures designed to ensure" that such rooms would not be allowed.[6]

An organization called Perverted-Justice (known as PJ) specializes in capturing persons who solicit PJ operatives posing as underage teens. To Catch a Predator is an on-running series on the television show Dateline NBC based on documenting such activities.

An organization called Crisp Thinking has created a service intended to identify grooming and warn parents, allowing them to install software that studies chat room and other Instant messaging logs for activity they have determined may identify grooming or other potentially suspicious activities. It has also adapted its technology to social networking services and ISPs.[7][8][9]

[edit] Criminal offences

[edit] General

In its report, Protection of Children Against Abuse Through New Technologies, the Council of Europe Cybercrime Convention Committee [1] addressed the emerging issues of violence against children through the use of new technologies (the issue of child pornography on the Internet is already covered by Article 9 Convention) with particular reference to grooming both through the internet and by mobile telephones.

Some States have already criminalized grooming in their national legislation.

[edit] Australia

Australian Criminal Code Act 1995 section 474.26 and 474.27 prohibits the use of a "carrier service" to communicate with the intent to procure a person under the age of 16, or expose such a person to any indecent matter for the purposes of grooming.

The various states and territories have similar laws, some of which use a different age (for example the victim need only be under 18 in Queensland).

[edit] Canada

In Canada, Criminal Code section 172.1 makes it an offence to communicate with a child through a computer system for the purpose of committing a sexual offence (termed "luring a child").

[edit] United Kingdom

In England and Wales, sections 14 and 15 of the Sexual Offences Act 2003 make it an offence to arrange a meeting with a child, for oneself or someone else, with the intent of sexually abusing the child. The meeting itself is also criminalized.[10]

The Protection of Children and Prevention of Sexual Offences (Scotland) Act 2005[11] introduced similar provision for Scotland.

Thus, a crime may be committed even without the actual meeting taking place and without the child being involved in the meeting (for example, if a police officer has taken over the contact and pretends to be that child). In R v T (2005) EWCA Crim 2681, the appellant, aged 43, had pretended to befriend a nine-year-old girl, but had done very little with her before she became suspicious and reported his approaches. He had a number of previous convictions (including one for rape) and was described as a "relentless, predatory pedophile". The Court of Appeal upheld a longer than commensurate sentence of eight years' imprisonment with an extended licence period of two years.

[edit] United States

In the United States, 18 U.S.C. ยง 2425 makes it an offense to transmit information about a person below the age of 18 for the purpose of committing a sexual offense. Some states have additional statutes covering seducing a child online, such as the Florida law that makes "Use of a Computer to Seduce a Child" a felony (ironically authored by then Florida state Senator Mark Foley, who as a Congressman authored the federal law against child grooming and resigned from office due to allegations of grooming and sexual harassment of underaged males).

[edit] References

  1. ^ Ending Offending Together
  2. ^ Warning Signs About Child Sexual Abuse
  3. ^ Grooming - Common tactics of sexual abusers
  4. ^ Ending Offending Together
  5. ^ New Zealand Youth: A profile of their health and well being
  6. ^ Letter agreement dated Oct. 7, 2005, signed by Yahoo! general counsel Michael Callahan
  7. ^ The 'anti-child grooming' website
  8. ^ Clipstar uses Anti-Grooming Engine to identify dangerous conversations
  9. ^ Crisp - Home
  10. ^ Act of the U.K. Parliament; Sexual Offences Act 2003, section 15
  11. ^ Act of the Scottish Parliament; Protection of Children and Prevention of Sexual Offences (Scotland) Act 2005, 2005 asp 9.

[edit] See also

[edit] External links

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