Grooming: What is this new form of cyberbullying that may be affecting your children?

There are few things in life that we can say that we are really exempt from happening to us, even more so where the Internet and social networks are present daily, because as we know these lend themselves to any type of activity. But, what consequences can it bring? One of them grooming.

Many people hear in the news of cases of children who were harassed and subdued by the network, And although for some it may seem unreal or too difficult to believe that someone who is on the other side of the screen, far from your son or daughter, could cause real damage, let me tell you that this happens more than you imagine.

This practice It is a problem of sexual harassment and abuse that violates the safety of minors on the Internet. That is why to provide you with more information, we have brought you this article today with all the vital information on this delicate topic.

What is grooming? The new mechanism of harassment of pedophiles

The term refers to the deception of a pederast, said word in Spanish means “grooming”. It is commonly used to describe a person who through the approach seeks to gain the trust of children and young people for a malicious purpose, sexual abuse.

Without a doubt, this is a despicable practice carried out by unscrupulous beings (men and women), to make contact with the most vulnerable in the home. It is considered a type of child abuse that usually takes place on social networks, and that seeks to involve and damage the minds of the little ones with pornography or sexual content not suitable for minors.

These after they manage to link with these in this type of activity, they use it for a greater blackmail that can even reach very strong physical and mental damage, or in the worst of cases to introduce them into environments of prostitution and sexual exploitation. Well, these people invest a lot of time in their preparation to create well-established ties.

Notably this can also take place in different environments like at home, at school, at church, etc.

How do I know if my child is experiencing “grooming” on social networks?

Many children or young people mostly do not report when they are victims of this, either due to ignorance, shame, fear or any similar symptom, but when a person suffers some type of sexual abuse, either physical or through social networks as it has been grooming, it is impossible for this to go unnoticed before our eyes, since just pay a little attention.

People who go through these situations They tend to suffer from low self-esteem. and even more this is noticeable in its low vital energy.

Because of this many people and children can go into depression as they do not feel confident enough to face this problem or ask for help.

That is why we must be very attentive with the behavior of our children in order not to miss any of the differences that we will comment on below.

For example, if we notice that they are hiding what they do on their mobile devices or computers, it is a sign that something is happening.

Children are characterized by their great energy when going out to play or practice activities that are favorites, Among them are usually:

• Music.
• The drawing.
• The swimming.
• Football.
• The baseball.
• Contact sports.

If we notice any decadence in the things they most like to do, it is also another sign that they may be experiencing problems.

On the other hand, it can be considered normal that our little ones at some point feel discouraged and do not want to go to school. But when it comes to a frequent situation, we must be attentive to them because it is possible that they are dealing with a situation in which they do not know what to do.

This is also often reflected a lot in the decrease in the concentration abilities of the minor, which leads to low academic performance, signs that certainly indicate that there are problems.

Other factors to consider are the appetite changes that can be seen reflected in a decrease in it, there may also be an increase in it due to anxiety.

Likewise emotions play a very important role in the life of the human being, and when they suffer this type of stress, sudden mood swings are generated that can range from extremely aggressive reactions to meaningless comments or jokes, or to a decline in mood and sadness.

A child in these states, not being prepared to deal with these situations, tends to decrease communication with his family and friends, isolating himself to a small environment.

One last thing to take into account is that since the minor has your vital energy level decreased a lot for all the reasons already mentioned, will inevitably begin to suffer very frequently discomforts in the body such as:

• Headaches.
• Stomach aches.
• dizziness
• Diarrhea.

Among other diseases frequently, all due to high levels of accumulated stress.

Strategies of the digital pedophile How do stalkers apply grooming?

Grooming can be done by anyone, because in order to carry out this type of activity you just need to work first with a good profile on the network, once they create it, they use it later to impersonate someone they are not.

The first thing they do is make indirect contact with their victims perhaps adding relatives or close accounts to appear someone known to the minor.

The person who performs this practice seeks to gain the trust of the minor with good chats on the networks, and even act as someone trusted by providing help or advice on some things.

Once these people manage to create a bond with the boy or girl, the harassment begins by showing unpleasant content, using blackmail and a sense of “Secret of Friends” to prevent the little one from talking about this situation with his parents or those closest to him.

Finally They look for minors to do the same things that they show them, introducing them to the creation of child pornographic content and in some extreme cases even prostitution.

It is very unfortunate that after the minor agrees to the first pornographic activity, the harasser already has something stronger with which to blackmail him, threatening to expose his body to his friends, family or social networks if he does not continue to do the same.

Tips to protect my children from grooming and other forms of cyberbullying

exist 3 main actions What can we do to protect our children from this kind of bullying?

The first thing is to always be present as a figure in which security and trust are projected. In addition to that, communication is essential for there to be trust in a father-son relationship.

Well, if we give our children enough confidence, we can easily touch on topics that for many can be considered taboos.

Here comes the second action, which after having a good relationship of trust and good communication, we can educate our children and alert them to the dangers of misusing the Internet.

They must be very clear that:

• should not provide information personal to strangers, never, neither passwords nor addresses.
• They should not accept people on their social networks that they have never seen or dealt with in person.
• They should avoid uploading images and information where their bodies are displayed, or the school where they study, places they frequent or others are shown on the networks.
• They should avoid contact by messaging with strangers and not accept any kind of proposal, whatever it may be.
• They must be educated on the correct use of social networks, as well as webcams.

Finally as representatives we must take certain measures with respect to the control that we will give our children on their devices. It is in our hands to establish measures to prevent access to pages with content not suitable for children.

It is even advisable to restrict Internet access a little at certain hours of the night, and this also prevents them from staying up late because they are browsing late hours without sleeping. There is also the option to block certain websites so that they do not have a way to access them.

Risks of grooming What is the worst that could happen to my child?

The groomer has only one ultimate goal, and that is sexual satisfaction. But beyond one violation of the rights of the minor which is already quite serious, there are great sequels and consequences that all this brings in the life of a child.

• sexual abuse: the child loses his purity and his innocent mind is totally corrupted and damaged, in addition to the physical damage, this in case an encounter with the stalker is really achieved.
• The minor loses his privacy: If the harasser gets what he is looking for, he will have compromising images or even videos of the minor under his power, which is quite serious and gives rise to the following two points.
• Child pornography: the stalker can easily distribute all the sexual content he has on him and distribute it on child pornography networks.
• Blackmail: extortion and blackmail make people feel unappreciated and even create a feeling of betrayal and deception, since at some point in the interaction they placed their trust in that supposed friend.
• Low self-esteem: All these situations together create a very negative environment for the child’s life that prevents them from being able to communicate and express themselves effectively, thus decreasing their vital energy and with it their self-esteem.
• Death: Unfortunately, low self-esteem leaves very serious damage in people and if we add to this a state of depression, the minor can end up taking his own life, which would be the most serious consequence of this type of harassment.

In the worst cases if a meeting with the stalker is arranged, this can end in violence, prostitution and at some point death.

To which organizations can I go to report grooming in Spain?

If we handle information that our children are receiving this type of harassment, the main thing we must bear in mind is that we must not contact the harasser, and by no means let him know that we are aware of the situation.

On the contrary, we must make him believe that everything is going according to his plans and keep all kinds of evidence that this crime is being committed, for this it is important to archive the conversations through captures and store any files received from the stalker.

Once we have everything we need we can go to different security entities to file the complaint, which in Spain would be the following:

• Group of telematic crimes of the civil guard: This group has been in operation since 1996 under the name “Computer Crime Group”, and is responsible for investigating and prosecuting all cases of crimes related to the web and the Internet. Years later, it changed its name to the “Telematic Crime Group” and they are currently working to resolve this type of conflict.
• National Police Technological Investigation Brigade: currently in Spain they are the most competent authority to solve problems of a computer nature. Since in addition to being backed by all the most outstanding public entities. These are in charge of investigating and prosecuting until they bring to trial all kinds of:
  • Internet scams.
  • Fraud.
  • threats.
  • Sexual harassment.
  • Child pornography.
  • Piracy.
  • Attacks against the security of accounts, or “Hacks” as it is better known.

• Protégéles.com: This website is run by a large organization of experts in child safety, accompanied by a group of good lawyers, psychologists and computer scientists who provide free assistance in these cases of child abuse and harassment.

What is the maximum penalty for a child molester who uses grooming against my child?

Basically the sentences conferred on people who practice some type of sexual harassment and abuse They range from 6 to 12 years old.

If we add to this some aberrations and other acts in which this type of person usually incurs, the sentences can increase much more.

This is what it is stipulated for the abuse and harassment of minors under 13 years of age, which are protected 100 percent by the authorities.

If it is a case of an even more defenseless minor, for example less than 4 years old, He is awarded the highest sentence for this type of crime, which is 12 years.

If it is verified that there were more than two people or it is a criminal organization who engages in these acts, the sentence is increased to a considerable number of years.

The same happens when it is verified that there was introduction of human limbs or other objects in the cavities of the minor, and if there was a level of gross violence, the sentence increases much more.