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Online grooming

Definition

A process by which an offender builds trust and emotional connection with a child (and sometimes the child's family) with the intention of facilitating sexual abuse or exploitation, conducted wholly or partly through online communication.

Related terms

Conversation analysis
The systematic study of the sequential structure of talk : how turns are allocated, how topics are initiated and responded to, and...
Desensitisation
A staged reduction of the target's resistance to sexual topics or contact, achieved in grooming through gradual introduction of sexual content, normalisation...
Entrapment
A legal defence arguing that law enforcement induced the defendant to commit an offence they would not otherwise have committed. In online...
Illocutionary act
The social action performed by an utterance : requesting, threatening, promising, warning : distinct from its literal propositional content. Grooming discourse often...
Secrecy enforcement
Linguistic strategies used by the groomer to prevent disclosure by the child: framing the relationship as a special secret, warning of consequences...

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