Research released to 'help prevent' online grooming
New anti-grooming advice has been made available to social workers and other professionals working with children in Swansea, Cardiff, Prestatyn and North West England.
The activity pack is based on research from NSPCC and Swansea University to raise awareness of how offenders groom children online, to prevent it from happening.
Looking at the language used in numerous chat logs from convicted paedophiles who groomed their victims online, it was revelled online grooming can happen very fast, sometimes within hours. In one case it took less than 20 minutes to persuade a child to meet in real life.
NSPCC Wales has been working with Swansea University since January on the material. They have also consulted with young people to create the TIME acronym that uses terminology they can relate to and remember.
The TIME acronym stands for:
Trust: Groomers say things to develop ‘dodgy trust’ and build a relationship.
Isolate: Groomers make you feel separate (both physically and mentally) from people in your life.
Measure: Groomers say things to test how strong their relationship with you is.
Enjoy: Groomers get off on talking about sexual and romantic things.
Ruth Mullineux, project lead with NSPCC Cymru / Wales, said:
Carl Sargeant AM, Cabinet Member for Children and Communities, said:
Professor Richard B. Davies, Vice Chancellor of Swansea University added:
The project has been funded by the Cherish Digital Economy Centre (Cherish-De). Professor Matt Jones, Principle Investigator of the organisation said: