How people interact with other peers has changed over time. This has been a fact since the social media phenomenon came into our lives. Now, interacting in real life has been shifted to the background level, people prefer to stay online at home . With the internet boom, the use of computers had been increasing slowly. The arrival of Hotmail was the first stepping stone to make this happen.
Internet Grooming
What is Internet Grooming?
Internet Grooming happens when an adult tries to gain the affection and the attachment of a child with the goal of getting sexual content using social media.
In many cases, the adult performing internet grooming can pretend to be another child or teenager with the purpose of getting his/her confidence in a easier way. This process may last weeks or even months in some cases, with the goal of befriending the child or gaining the child's friendship step by step, as a way to receive compromised content from them. Sometimes, this content can be obtained using threats, and after succeeding, it can be used to blackmail them with the obtained content in order to get even more content.
Internet Grooming is considered the first steps of sexual abuse, as the ultimate goal of this practice is the sexual satisfaction of the adult.
How can we fight Internet Grooming?
Avoid uploading images or personal information on social media, as you can be more vulnerable against strangers.
Avoid your photos or personal info from being stolen, protect your computer with antivirus, update your software frequently and create strong passwords. In these articles we teach you how to make stronger passwords and to protect your computer against threats.
Never yield against blackmail, because it would only worsen the child's condition. Also, it would improve the abuser status which would have great suggestive power.
In case the information was already stolen (pictures, videos or any other sort of data) ask for help to an adult of trust or somebody prepared for this kind of situations (parents, teachers, the police...)
Reduce the abuser power by restricting the possibility of this situation from happening again. Make a deep clean of the device, removing any malware it may have and changing the passwords in a more strong way if possible.
Gather every evidence you can use to demonstrate this crime, make screenshots of conversations, messages, everything that can prove it.
Finally, fill a complaint form to the authorities, it’s the only way to avoid this abuser from continuing harassing the child or other children.
The development of new technologies is change our lifestyle. It’s not only changing the elderly people’s lives, now you can practically do bureaucratic paperwork online, and make an online inquiry as well. You don’t need to look for a number in the yellow pages or in the phonebook nor wait with your smartphone until you get an answer back. The internet has revolutionized our way of living and also ours kids’.
Strong passwords is a topic or an issue that worries society lately as its importance is increasing nowadays. Not only weak passwords is a problem, but also other ways which cyber criminals can get information with, for example through phishing.
