Background: The victimization of children has been a prevalent issue long before the emergence of social media. The rapid development of the world wide web during the last decades has created more ways to get access to anyone anywhere at any time. This has brought along a yearly increase in the number of children who are abused online with the help of technological devices. So far, the existing research in the field of online grooming has been limited and especially in Estonia. Although the problem has been acknowledged, little is known about the offenders and how they target children for sexual purposes. Aim: The thesis aims to create a fuller picture of different types of online offenders in Estonia by using typology formed by the European Online Grooming Project. Furthermore, it looks into the rational choice processes of these offenders and how they establish a connection with their victims for personal sexual gratification while minimizing their risk of getting caught. Method: The data consists of 13 court cases of offenders who were found guilty in 2017-2022. The documents were accessed in Estonian Harju County Court and analyzed using thematic analysis. Results: The results showed that the most common types of online offenders in Estonia are intimacy-seeking and adaptable. The findings add support to previous research, showing that most online offenders use different controlling tactics like emotional abuse, threatening, blackmailing, and flattery to benefit their chances of gaining sexual gratification from the relationship. To minimize their chances of getting caught, the offenders had chosen vulnerable victims, faked details about their personal information, used different social media applications to their own benefit, and consistently asked the victims about their surrounding environment. Conclusion: The findings of the study are in line with previous research about the typologies and strategies of online groomers whilst providing new data for future research on the topic. The hope is that with a deeper analysis of the groomers behavior, the study helps to create further preventative measures to decrease the number of potential future victims.

Denna studie undersöker möjliga konsekvenser för barn som blivit utsatta för grooming som tardel av pedofiljägarnätverks publicerade innehåll från uthängningar av misstänkta förövare. Forskning kring pedofiljakt finns tillgänglig medan det finns en kunskapslucka kring barn som tardel av nätverkens publicerade innehåll. Studien är en fallstudie med syfte är att studera pedofiljakti förhållande till dessa barn och till socialtjänsten, som har ansvaret att hjälpa barn i utsatta situationer. Detta görs med hjälp av Goffmans teori om stigma, kompletterad av en traumagenisk dynamisk modell. Resultatet visar att den bild som pedofiljägarnätverken visar av barn som blivit utsatta förgrooming är ensidig och utelämnar den komplexitet som finns hos barnens upplevelser, både av groomingen och av relationen till och känslorna kring sin förövare. Det kan leda till att barnen får ännu svårare att berätta om sina upplevelser, men att ta del av innehåll där en vuxen person bekräftar att groomingen alltid är förövarens ansvar och att det som hänt alltid är förövarens fel, kan upplevas som en lättnad och vara underlättande för att barnen ska berätta om groomingen för sin omgivning. Eftersom att berätta för omgivningen är en förutsättning för att socialtjänstenska kunna ge barnen hjälp och stöd, påverkas socialtjänsten av den information som barnen tardel av. Barns förändrade attityder till sina erfarenheter kan både underlätta och försvåra socialtjänstens arbete med att ge stöd och skydd till barn som blivit utsatta för grooming.

Online sexual solicitors are individuals who deceptively earn the trust of minors online with the goal of eventual sexual gratification. Despite the prevalence of online solicitation, conversations in the domain are difficult to acquire due to the sensitive nature of the data. As a result, researchers studying online solicitors often study conversations between solicitors and decoys which are publicly available online. However, researchers have begun to believe such conversations are not representative of solicitor-victim conversations. Decoys and law enforcement are restricted in that they are unable to initiate contact, suggest meeting, or begin sexual conversations with an offender. Additionally decoys and law enforcement officers both have a goal of gathering evidence which means they often respond positively in contexts which would normally be considered awkward or inappropriate. Multiple researchers have suggested differences may exist between offender-victim and offender-decoy conversations and yet little research has sought to identify the differences and similarities between those talking to solicitors. In this study, the author identifies differences between decoys, officers, and victims within the manipulative process used by online solicitors to entrap victims which is known as grooming. The author looks at differences which occur within grooming stages and strategies within the grooming stages. The research in this study has implications for the data choices of future researchers in this domain. Additionally, this research may be used to inform the training process of officers who will engage in online sex stings.

Detta examensarbete handlar om online grooming och utnyttjande av barn och riktar sig främst till barn i åldrarna 10-13. I dagens samhälle där majoriteten har egen mobiltelefon innan 10 års ålder är det extra viktigt att våga prata med barn om sex och övergrepp. Porr finns överallt och den skapar en farlig bild av sex och sexualitet. Vem som helst kan kontakta dig på nätet och alla är inte vem de påstår sig att vara. Genom att våga prata med barn om detta kan vi skydda dem från förövare och övergrepp. Förhoppningen med arbetet är att öppna för diskussion om ämnet och att barn ska våga söka hjälp om något liknande händer dem. Genom att ta del av detta arbete kan de förhoppningsvis också se varningssignalerna och undvika att hamna i liknande situationer.  Du får följa mig när jag kommer fram till designval, illustrationer, typografi och form som tillslut landar i en bok riktad till barn som närmar sig ämnet grooming på ett annourlunda sätt än vad man ser i media. / This thesis deals with the topic of child grooming and sexual exploitization and is first and foremost aimed at children between the ages of 10-13. In todays society where most children has their own phones before the age of 10, it's especially important to talk to them about sexual abuse. Porn is everywhere and can cause a harmful view of sex and sexuality. Anyone can contact you online and everyone isn't who they appear to be. By having conversations with children about these topics can we protect them against predators and abuse. The hopes for this project is to open up for conversation and for children to have the courage to seek help if they find themselves in a similar situation. By taking part of this project can they also hopefully recognize red flags and avoid these types of situations.  You'll get to follow me when weighing different design options, illustrations and typography that in the end becomes a book for children that approaches the subject of grooming in an alternative way from what media shows us.

<p dir="ltr">Recent developments in computer technology have increased the number of internet stalkers, child pornographers, traffickers and sexual predators. In a world where digital literacy is on the rise and people strive to keep up with the latest technology, this paper explores the relationship between digital literacy and online grooming(computer-mediated sexual grooming) and offline grooming (localized sexual grooming) and the effect of age, gender, marital status and parental status on the way individuals perceive grooming. This data was collected via a survey from 256 respondents who are 18 years and above and classified as parents within the United States. Several analyses such as correlations, Mann-Whitney U test and Kruskal Wallis H test were conducted, and our results suggest that there is a relationship between digital literacy and the perceptions of grooming, which may have implications on cybersecurity awareness training. The results highlight the importance of digital literacy in the perception of computer-mediated sexual grooming and familial sexual grooming, with enough evidence to support its essential role in people’s sense of safety. In conclusion, this study emphasized the need for targeted programs and campaigns to create education and awareness with the aim of improving parental digital literacy skills, understanding of grooming risks, and responsible Internet use education across society.</p>

<p dir="ltr">One of the issues on social media that is expanding the fastest is children being exposed to predators online [ 1 ]. Due to the ease with which a larger segment of the younger population may now access the Internet, online grooming activity on social media has grown to be a significant social concern. Child grooming, in which adults and minors exchange sexually explicit text and media via social media platforms, is a typical component of online child exploitation. An estimated 500,000 predators operate online every day. According to estimates, Internet chat rooms and instant messaging are where 89% of sexual approaches against children take place. The child may face a variety of unpleasant consequences following a grooming event, including shame, anger, anxiety, tension, despair, and substance abuse which make it more difficult for them to report the exploitation. A substantial amount of research in this domain has focused on identifying certain vulnerabilities of the victims of grooming. These vulnerabilities include specific age groups, gender, psychological factors, no family support, and lack of good social relations which make young people more vulnerable to grooming. So far no technical work has been done to apply statistical analysis on these vulnerability profiles and observe how these patterns change between different victim types and offender types. This work presents a detailed analysis of the effect of Offender type (contact and fantasy) and victim type (Law Enforcement Officers, Real Victims and Decoys (Perverted Justice)) on representation of different vulnerabilities in grooming conversations. Comparison of different victim groups would provide insights into creating the right training material for LEOs and decoys and help in the training process for online sting operations. Moreover, comparison of different offender types would help create targeted prevention strategies to tackle online child grooming and help the victims.</p>

L’approche de la carrière criminelle a été appliquée à maintes reprises auprès de délinquants sexuels afin d’approfondir les connaissances relatives à leur participation criminelle, à la fréquence de leur passage à l’acte, à la durée de leur parcours criminel, à la gravité de leurs crimes et au polymorphisme dont ces délinquants font preuve. Parallèlement à l’essor des nouvelles technologies, un besoin grandissant d’en apprendre davantage sur la carrière criminelle des auteurs de leurre informatique s’est fait ressentir. À ce jour, peu d’études ont analysé le parcours criminel emprunté par ces cyberdélinquants sexuels en ayant recours au cadre d’analyse de la carrière criminelle. Afin de remédier à cette limite, le présent mémoire a comme objectif principal d’analyser les parcours criminels des auteurs de leurre informatique afin d’élargir les connaissances quant à la participation, la fréquence, la durée, la gravité et le polymorphisme. Plus précisément, l’objectif spécifique est d’analyser les tendances en termes de carrières criminelles. Pour ce faire, une analyse de profils latents a été menée auprès d’un échantillon de 1 201 auteurs de leurre. Les résultats indiquent l’existence de divers parcours criminels des auteurs de leurre et mettent en lumière quatre profils, soit (1) l’auteur de leurre « ponctuel à délinquance unique », (2) l’auteur de leurre « versatile tardif », (3) l’auteur de leurre « délinquant sexuel spécialiste » et (4) l’auteur de leurre « polymorphe prolifique ». Le premier profil identifié est composé d’auteurs de leurre ne commettant qu’un seul crime à travers leur parcours criminel selon les données officielles. Le second profil, pour sa part, regroupe les individus commettant plusieurs crimes sexuels et non sexuels et qui mettent fin tardivement à leur carrière criminelle. Ensuite, le troisième profil identifié comprend les auteurs ayant un penchant pour les crimes de sexuels, bien que leur carrière criminelle soit limitée en termes de participation et de fréquence. Dernièrement, le quatrième profil est constitué d’auteurs polymorphes commettant une variété de crimes sexuels et non sexuels. / The criminal career approach has been extensively applied in the context of sexual delinquency and allowed to deepen knowledge regarding the crimes committed by sex offenders, the duration of their criminal involvement, the seriousness of their criminal behaviors, and the variety of crimes they commit. Along with the rise of new technologies, there has been a growing need to learn more about the criminal careers of online groomers. To date, no studies have analyzed the criminal path of these online sex offenders using a criminal career framework. To remedy this limitation, the main objective of this paper is to analyze the criminal paths of online groomers as to broaden knowledge on participation, frequency, duration, seriousness, and versatility. Specifically, the objective is to identify tendencies in regards to their criminal careers. To do so, a latent profile analysis was performed on a sample of 1 201 online groomers. The results support the existence of multiple delinquent paths of individuals who sexually solicit youth online and highlight the existence of four profiles: (1) the “one-timer” groomer, (2) the “versatile and late” groomer, (3) the “specialist sex offender” groomer, and (4) the “versatile and prolific” groomer. The first profile identified consists of online groomers committing a single crime across their criminal path. The second profile includes individuals who commit multiple sexual and non-sexual crimes and who end their criminal career belatedly. The third identified profile includes perpetrators with a preference for sexual crimes, but whose criminal careers are limited in terms of participation and frequency. Lastly, the fourth profile is composed of versatile offenders committing a variety of sexual and non-sexual crimes.