“A 19-year old girl with a short height and who was not very much liked by his classmates always felt alone in the world. 

To avoid this sense of loneliness she made her accounts on different social media platforms and started interacting with unknown people.

One day she got a text from someone who was appealing to her for her beauty. It was the first time this girl got attention from someone. She liked it and responded with thanks.

Then they both started chatting online.

In a very less of time, they both get into a relationship. One day the boy asked that girl to share her sexually exciting pictures, without knowing that who was this boy behind the girl had sent him her picture.

The time when the boy got the pictures he started blackmailing her.

If the girl was aware of the safe use of the internet and cyber grooming she would better protect her from this life-changing incident”. 

“That girl was not aware, are you?”

Let’s know some more details about cyber grooming to protect yourself from being the victim of the next incident.

Cyber Grooming Definition

When you are an adolescent the hormonal changes may lead you to crave and attract many things that you may not be looking at earlier.  In this age cyber grooming becomes the major threat faced by these young kids.

When you are using so many social media it’s very normal that you make a bond with someone online whom you may not be knowing offline, but the thing is, can you trust a stranger like that?

The obvious answer would be a big NO, but unfortunately, these kids never bother before sharing their personal information and even personal pictures.

In cyber grooming the person makes an emotional bond with a stranger online and where this stranger then takes advantage of their trust for sexually abusing or exploiting them.

The person who uses online social media to earn people's trust and then exploit them are called cyber groomers in technical terms. They are not doing anything differently than the general groomers do.

The online platform of where these groomers perform their activity may be the gaming websites, social media, emails, chat rooms, instant messaging, etc.

They may approach you by creating fake accounts, may pretend to have the same interest as the person have whom they are targeting as their victim.

These instances mostly happen with young kids or teenagers. The reason behind this may be the high use of social media platforms, isolated nature, low confidence in public, lost attention at the home, etc.

Online Grooming Tactics

Cyber groomers approach you after visiting your profiles and knowing all details related to your interest, disinterest, likes and dislikes, friends, and families.

Now when they have all the information, they are ready to honey trap you by approaching with complements in social media posts and comments first and then in personal chats.

The young ones are easily caught up in their trap as they are seeking attention in the outer world which they couldn’t get in the real world.

Once you have taken them as trustworthy person they will start taking befits by offering modeling jobs, asking for relationships, and compromising and sexually explicating pictures and videos. 

The following are a few activities or strategies that the online predator or groomer starts to gradually build a relationship with.

• Request your for a favor to gain some pity.
• Make your  feel so special.
• Ask for your photos and videos in a friendly way initially.
• Ask for the phone number to call.
• Give you gifts and money.
• Finally, they make a threat with the resources they gained from you.

Cyber Grooming Signs

Cyber grooming has a deep impact on the victim’s emotional, physical, and psychological balance. It may affect academic performance, social behavior, and even daily routine.

This impact is so devastating that it may affect the victim for a long term and may sometimes haunt the victim even in adulthood.

The following are some of the odd activities that are to be noticed in your children to check if they are being online groomed:

• The child will be observed to be using the internet too much lately
• Not disclosing what they are doing online / deleting the search history
• Owning some items which clearly you haven’t bought for them
• Turing the screen away so that you wouldn’t see it
• Behaving odd like they are grown-ups all of a sudden

After knowing this, are you concerned about your protection from cyber grooming?

Don’t be worry, with awareness and precaution you can save yourself from being the prey of these cyber groomers and you can use the internet and mobile device fearlessly.

All you need to be careful and take all the preventive measures of safe use of the internet.

Prevent Cyber Grooming

Following are a few tips that you can follow to safeguard yourself and your friend from cyber grooming.

• Don’t accept friend requests from unknown people. The cyber groomer may create a fake account of someone for e.g. a celebrity, a sportsperson, or anyone else you like to befriend with you.
• Make it a rule of thumb to never share your personal information like DOB, phone no., address, school name, etc. on any social media platform.
• Set an alert of suspicion in your mind when someone gives you unnecessary compliments on your appearance and skill in a very short duration of their acquaintance with you.
• Avoid talking to the person who asks personal questions about your physical and sexual experience. Tell them to stop asking such question as you feel uncomfortable and if he/she still continue, immediately block him/her and inform your parents.
• Never communicate in a video call with a person you may not know very well. Sometimes the person you know can also take advantage of this by recording the call and then morphing it with some other compromising picture or video.
• Be cautious about what you are chatting about online. Follow the same etiquette as you do in the real world. It’s called netiquette.  Be decent and respectful and accept only the same behavior from others as well.
• Don’t go for a blind date along with a person you met online. Always accompany a friend or elder with you.
• Inform your parents/elder:
• Block the offender
• Collect evidence
• Take legal assistance and benefits of IT Act

To prevent online grooming to happen to your kids or if you find such a thing happening already, follow the below-given guidelines to safeguard your kids from falling into the predator’s trap.

• Assure your kids that you’re there for them no matter what
• Never blame your kids in such a situation as it may affect them very deeply
• Make them understand the crucially of the situation such that they wouldn’t do it/repeat it.
• Help them block the online groomer in every platform
• Apply parental controls over every device they are using
• Finally, if you find anything abusive or illegal going on, report that person immediately to the police.

Your awareness is your protection, be aware, be safe