European Online Grooming Project | Our findings

A common perception of online groomers is that they disguise their identity and spend time socialising with their victim(s), before arranging to meet in real life. Our findings uncover a more complicated picture; not all offenders were interested in meeting young people in real life, some offenders made very fast sexual contact with their victim(s) and not all offenders used indecent images to groom a young person.

Our study shows that the online environment disinhibits groomers and young people. A concerning finding is the extent to which young people use sexual screen names and photos of themselves and act in a sexual way with people who they have only met online.

"Distorted Attachment"

This type of groomer thinks he is in a romantic and consenting relationship with the young person. He doesn't use indecent images of young people or try to hide his identity. He'll spend a long time socialising with a young person online, getting to know them before arranging to meet in real life.

"Adaptable Offender"

This type of groomer can use lots of different identities online, and adapts his style of grooming depending on the young person he is in contact with. He views the people he is grooming as sexually mature and may or may not use indecent images as part of the grooming process. He won't necessarily attempt to meet his victim(s) in real life.

"Hyper-Sexual"

This type of groomer is engaged in sharing and acquiring extensive numbers of indecent images of children. He'll be in touch with other sexual offenders online, but tends to have little or no interest in meeting his victim(s) in real life. He'll probably use different identities or a sexually explicit profile name and photo. The offending style of these groomers tends to be characterised by fast contact with the young person.

From offenders' accounts, it's clear that safety messages are getting through to a resilient group of young people.  Those young people who were susceptible to online grooming displayed a range of vulnerability features that could include: loneliness, low self-esteem, self-harming behaviour, family break-up, and incidence of ongoing sexual abuse by other offenders.