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What is Grooming?

“Child grooming is a calculated process. Predators manipulate and exploit children to gradually gain their trust. It’s often the precursor before child sexual abuse occurs. People who groom build close relationships with children or young people – and sometimes with families or caregivers as well – to minimize resistance to abuse.”

-Praesidium 

Read more on grooming from Praesidium
Read the full article on Grooming vs Mentoring

“A bad actor will try to create opportunities to be physically alone with the child. Watch for the difference between an adult (with healthy adult relationships) who babysits or carpools when asked and an adult who seems eager to create time alone with a child.”

-Debbie Ausburn, Grooming or Mentoring? How do we tell the difference?

Examples of Grooming Behavior

 

  • Building a child’s trust, including through special attention or gifts
  • Treating a child like an adult to make them feel different and special
  • Gaining the trust of a child’s parents, family or caregivers
  • Isolating a child from supportive and protective family and friends
  • Convincing a child to use different online platforms to evade detection, including those using encrypted technologies
  • Coercing a child, including through threats, stalking and asking them to keep secrets
  • Manipulating a child to blame themselves for the situation
  • Encouraging or blackmailing a child to engage in sexual activity, produce child sexual abuse imagery or participate in sexualized virtual chats
  • Non-sexual touching of the child or young person that develops into sexual behavior over time.[1]

[1] https://www.childsafety.gov.au/about-child-sexual-abuse/grooming

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