Online grooming

What you need to know

Online grooming describes a process where someone befriends a child online and builds up their trust with the intention of manipulating them, exploiting them or causing them harm. Groomers will often build an emotional connection with a child to gain their trust and offenders might look to exploit issues such as loneliness, isolation, low self-esteem, family or relationship difficulties or exploring sexuality.

The child could be groomed by someone they know or a complete stranger. Groomers use a range of tactics to gain power and control over their intended victim. These can include posing as a non-threatening friend, flirting, bribing with real or virtual gifts, compliments, blackmail and isolating the child from friends and family.

The rapid advances and adoption of AI technology has made it easier for children and young people to be groomed online. Generative AI tools can be used to create realistic profiles, images and conversation to convince young people they are communicating with a peer. GenAI can also be used to manipulate images, such as faking nudity, which can be used for extortion purposes.   

Teaching children from a young age what healthy and respectful relationships look like can help them understand who to trust online and empower them to avoid or safely deal with inappropriate contact.