Child Abuse & Neglect<\/a>, Adelaide University collaborated with researchers from eSafety, the Australian Institute of Criminology and Michigan State University to undertake the research.<\/p>\n\u201cThe most common experiences involved communication related to trust-building, personal questions and risk-assessment behaviours, such as strangers discussing common interests and asking about a child\u2019s life, relationships or online activities,\u201d said lead researcher Dr Katie Logos from Adelaide University\u2019s School of Society and Culture.<\/p>\n
\u201cMore explicit solicitation-related communication, such as directly requesting sexual information, conversations or images, was less common but still experienced by a substantial number of children, with around one in five children being asked by someone they only knew online to send photos or videos of themselves or to meet up in person.\u201d<\/p>\n
Many children reported feeling indifferent about these interactions, often believed they were communicating with another child rather than an adult, and commonly responded by doing nothing or restricting the communicator from contacting them.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis suggests some grooming behaviours may blend into ordinary online conversations and might be difficult to recognise,\u201d Dr Logos said.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhile some of the interactions may genuinely have involved other young people, children often cannot verify who is behind an account, highlighting concerns about adults posing as children to gain trust.\u201d<\/p>\n
Another key finding was that children who used common online safety measures, such as privacy settings, parental guidance or age-appropriate platforms, were just as likely to report receiving grooming-related communication as those who did not.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis does not mean these safety measures are ineffective. It is possible that some children adopted stronger safety practices after experiencing these interactions,\u201d said researcher Professor Russell Brewer, from Adelaide University\u2019s School of Society and Culture and Director of the Australian Cybercrime Observatory.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhile these strategies remain important for staying safe online, our findings suggest they may not completely prevent children from being exposed to grooming-related communication.\u201d<\/p>\n
Dr Logos said the prevalence of grooming-related communication was higher than expected and above rates reported in previous studies, which have typically found rates ranging from around 5 per cent to 30 per cent.<\/p>\n
\u201cOne reason for this difference is that we examined a broader range of behaviours that can form part of the grooming process, while existing research often focuses more narrowly on overtly sexual or unwanted solicitation from adults,\u201d Dr Logos said.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe also asked about interactions with any online stranger, rather than limiting questions to people children believed were adults. This is important because grooming often involves subtle relationship-building tactics, and many offenders are known to pretend to be children online.\u201d<\/p>\n
Dr Logos said online grooming can take many forms and can be difficult to recognise, often beginning through social media, online games or messaging apps.<\/p>\n
\u201cMany interactions can seem friendly or harmless at first. Offenders may use a range of more subtle grooming tactics before more obvious forms of online sexual solicitation, such as direct requests for sexual conversations, images or meetings,\u201d Dr Logos said.<\/p>\n
\u201cBy the time an offender makes a sexual request, a child may already trust the person or feel comfortable talking to them.\u201d<\/p>\n
Examples of communications that can form part of the grooming process include: \u201cWhat school do you go to?\u201d, \u201cDo your parents check your phone?\u201d, \u201cLet\u2019s move to a different platform\u201d or \u201cSend me a photo so I know who I\u2019m speaking to\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cThese types of messages can be used to gather information, assess and respond to the risk of detection and, in some cases, isolate a child or sexualise interactions,\u201d Dr Logos said.<\/p>\n
Comments such as \u201cWe have so much in common\u201d or \u201cYou\u2019re really easy to talk to\u201d, as well as deceptive claims about age, interests or where someone lives, can also be used to establish trust and develop a relationship with a child.<\/p>\n
\u201cOur findings suggest education may need to go beyond warning children about obvious dangers or direct requests for sexual content,\u201d Dr Logos said.<\/p>\n
\u201cUnderstanding how children experience and interpret these early interactions can help us develop better education and support strategies that teach young people how to recognise potential warning signs and respond safely.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"BYLINE: Lara Pacillo Nearly two-thirds of Australian children surveyed in a recent study have received at least one…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":617788,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[134775,61,60,1378,80],"class_list":["post-617787","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-technology","tag-adelaide-university","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-newswise","tag-technology"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/617787","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=617787"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/617787\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/617788"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=617787"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=617787"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=617787"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}