The background of this report implies the sexual abuse of young people via the Internet as an international problem, a crime without geographical boundaries. Solutions both to perpetrators´ use of the Internet and to the safety of young people online must be sought and will necessarily involve agencies working to protect young people at local, national and international levels.
Online grooming is defined as the process by which a person befriends a young person online to facilitate online sexual contact and/or a physical meeting with them, with the goal of committing sexual abuse.
The aim:
The European Online Grooming Project research consortium is comprised of experts from across Europe and was tasked with meeting the following research objectives:
- Describe the behavior of both offenders who groom and young people who are “groomed''.
- Describe how information, communication technology (ICT) may facilitate online grooming.
- Identify how young people are selected and prepared by online groomers for abuse online.
- Contribute to the development of prevention initiatives aimed at parents and young people.
This report brings together findings from the main stages of the European Online Grooming Project - the in-depth interviews with online groomers, focus group with young people, and dissemination events with key stakeholder groups.
The scoping report and literature review have been published and are available for download at the project website.
Prepared for and co-funded by the European Commission Safer Internet Plus Programme