Grooming is the sexual harassment of minors that is carried out over the Internet.
The definition of grooming does not appear in the dictionary of the Royal Spanish Academy ( RAE ). However, it is very important to know what this concept refers to since it is linked to the safety and integrity of children and adolescents.
Virtual sexual harassment that is carried out on a minor is called grooming. These are intentional actions developed by an adult to establish a bond with a minor with a sexual intention .
The adult, in this framework, develops a behavior that aims to achieve a virtual friendship with the child, whether through the Internet , cell phone (mobile) or another technological tool. With this objective, he can pretend that he is also a minor. Once the emotional bond with the victim is established, the stalker begins to violate the child's privacy and can obtain his or her personal and even contact information.
Purpose of grooming
The purpose of grooming is usually to obtain images of the minor without clothes or engaging in some type of sexual act. With this material in their possession , the harasser can blackmail you to obtain more images or even to force you to have a physical encounter, turning grooming (virtual) into sexual abuse (real, physical).
This means that grooming is associated with pedophilia or pedophilia . It can also be carried out to introduce the minor to pornography or a prostitution ring.
Grooming is linked to pedophilia or pedophilia.
Different phases
In addition to everything indicated, we cannot ignore that it is established that grooming has several phases, as announced by Save the Children :
– The creation of a bond of trust, which is when the harasser and criminal usually pretends to be another child in order to generate trust with the minor and, little by little, create a bond of friendship at least between them.
– The isolation of the victim, which leads the aggressor to make it clear to the minor that he cannot tell anything about what is happening between them. It is a way to get you away from your closest environment.
– Risk assessment. In this case the offender, with the intention of "protecting his back" and being cautious, tries to find out if the minor has told anyone else about the bond they have created between them.
– Conversations about sex. Specifically, what the aggressor does is, once he has generated the aforementioned bond of trust with the minor, progressively introduce talks and comments about sexuality so that the minor becomes accustomed to that topic.
– Requests of a sexual nature. In this phase is when the aggressor does not hesitate to threaten, coerce or blackmail the minor in some way so that he can send him photographs or videos of sexual content and even so that, when the time comes, they can have a sexual encounter face to face leaving aside the online sphere.
Grooming prevention
To prevent grooming , parents and guardians of children should teach them not to post photos or personal information; to never accept any messages or materials with sexual content; Oh, don't add strangers as contacts on social networks .
In addition, experts recommend that minors use computers (computers) that are located in common or busy spaces of the house.