A review of young people's vulnerabilities to online grooming

Abstract This review explores risk factors that may make a young person vulnerable to being groomed online. Even though research in this area is extremely limited, adolescents appear to be the age group most vulnerable to online grooming. Other vulnerabilities appear to be consistent with those asso...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Aggression and violent behavior 2013-01, Vol.18 (1), p.135-146
Main Authors: Whittle, Helen, Hamilton-Giachritsis, Catherine, Beech, Anthony, Collings, Guy
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Adolescents
Biological and medical sciences
Chat rooms
Child
Child abuse
Criminology
Internet
Internet access
Medical sciences
Online grooming
Parental participation
Psychiatry
Psychology. Psychoanalysis. Psychiatry
Psychopathology. Psychiatry
Review articles
Risk
Risk factors
Risk taking
Sexual abuse
Social relations
Socioeconomic status
Teenagers
Victimology
Victims
Vulnerabilities
Vulnerability
Young adults
Young people
Youth
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Summary:Abstract This review explores risk factors that may make a young person vulnerable to being groomed online. Even though research in this area is extremely limited, adolescents appear to be the age group most vulnerable to online grooming. Other vulnerabilities appear to be consistent with those associated with offline sexual abuse. The review suggests that behaviors specific to online grooming include: engaging in risk taking behavior online, high levels of internet access, and lack of parental involvement in the young person's internet use. Vulnerabilities to carry out these types of behavior and be more exposed to the risk of online grooming, are set within the context of the Ecological Model of child protection, consisting of: individual, family, community, and cultural risk factors. Patterns of vulnerability regarding living environment, ethnicity, socioeconomic status, and personality are tentative, but are often interconnected. The more risk taking behaviors the young person carries out, plus greater levels of vulnerability factors, the less resilient they are likely to be towards protecting themselves against online grooming. A protective factor appears to be parental involvement in their child's use of the internet. Therefore, this, in combination with internet safety education at school, is encouraged.
ISSN:1359-1789
1873-6335
DOI:10.1016/j.avb.2012.11.008