Child grooming
Child grooming, in the context of this article, refers to actions deliberately undertaken with the aim of befriending a
child, in order to lower a child's sexual inhibitions or establish an intimate friendship in preparation to the eventual introduction of sexual activities with the child.
The phrase 'child grooming' can also mean preparing a child for a future activity or role outside of a sexual context. This can include educating the child, ensuring the child knows how to behave in a social setting as well as other benign activities essential for normal child development. This definition is outside of the context of this article.
The act of grooming a child sexually may include activities that are legal in and of themselves, as well as acts which are illegal in some jurisictions, such as
showing pornography to the child by which the groomer may seek to
arouse the child sexually, arouse his/her sexual curiosity, or to persuade the child that sexual activity is normal between adults and children.
Sexual grooming of children also occurs on the
Internet. The adult's goals may include online sexual activityor meeting the child in person.
In
2003,
MSN implemented restrictions to help protect children from adults seeking sexual contact or sexual conversations with them in
chat rooms. In
2005,
Yahoo! chat rooms were investigated by the
New York State attorney general's office for allowing users to create rooms whose names suggested that they were being used for this purpose. That October, Yahoo! agreed to "implement policies and procedures designed to ensure" that such rooms would not be allowed.
[Letter agreement dated Oct. 7, 2005, signed by Yahoo! general counsel Michael Callahan]General
In its report,
Protection of Children Against Abuse Through New Technologies, the
Council of Europe Cybercrime Convention Committee [
1] addressed the emerging issues of violence against children through the use of new technologies (the issue of
child pornography on the
Internet is already covered by Article 9 Convention) with particular reference to grooming both through the internet and by
mobile telephones.
Some States have already criminalized grooming in their national legislation.
Australia
Australian Criminal Code section 218A prohibits the use of electronic communication with the intent to procure a person under the age of 16, or expose such a person to any indecent matter.
Canada
In
Canada, Criminal Code section 172.1 makes it an offence to communicate with a child through a computer system for the purpose of committing a sexual offence (termed "luring a child").
United Kingdom
In the
United Kingdom, ss14 and 15 Sexual Offences Act of 2003, Part 1, make it an offence to arrange a meeting with a child, for oneself or someone else, with the intent of
sexually abusing the child. The meeting itself is also criminalized.
[Act of the U.K. Parliament; Sexual Offences Act 2003, section 15]The law in
Scotland was introduced in
2005[Act of the Scottish Parliament; Protection of Children and Prevention of Sexual Offences (Scotland) Act 2005, 2005 asp 9.]. Thus, a crime may be committed without a meeting actually taking place and without the child being involved in the meeting (for example, if a police officer has taken over the contact and pretends to be that child). In
R v T (2005) EWCA Crim 2681, the appellant, aged 43, had pretended to befriend a nine-year-old girl, but had done very little with her before she became suspicious and reported his approaches. He had a number of previous convictions (including one for
rape) and was described as a "relentless, predatory
paedophile". The
Court of Appeal upheld a longer than commensurate
sentence of eight years' imprisonment with an extended licence period of two years.
United States
In the
United States, US Code Title 18, Part 1, Chapter 117, § 2425 makes it an offence to transmit information about a person below the age of 18 for the purpose of committing a
sexual offence. Some states have additional statutes covering seducing a child online, such as the
Florida law that makes "Use of a Computer to Seduce a Child" a
felony.
*
Cybersex*
Perverted-Justice.comTo Catch a Predator*
Pedophilia*
Brian Doyle*
University of Central Lancashire, Cyberspace Research Unit, "Cyber Stalking, Abusive Cyber Sex And Online Grooming: A Programme Of Education For Teenagers" (2004)*
Grooming Children for Sexual Molestation, written by the Assistant Attorney General for the State of Wisconsin, who specializes in the prosecution of crimes committed against children.
