Grooming and harassment of children through the Internet

Have you ever heard anything about grooming? What is grooming? When is it said that a child suffers from cyberbullying ? The grooming ('toilet') is one of the problems that can affect the safety of children on the Internet, a risky situation that can cause much harm to children. Consists of delibera

Have you ever heard anything about grooming? What is grooming? When is it said that a child suffers from cyberbullying? The grooming ('toilet') is one of the problems that can affect the safety of children on the Internet, a risky situation that can cause much harm to children.

Consists of deliberate actions by an adult in order to establish friendship ties with a child on the Internet, in order to obtain sexual satisfactions.

We tell you more about groming and harassment of children through the internet.

Sexual harassment of children on social networks

Grooming is one of the risks that can affect children on the Internet. Isabel Plaza, expert in the Infantile Use of New Technologies of the Fundación Alia2, in an exclusive interview with GuiaInfantil.com, explains that grooming is the cajoling of an adult towards a minor with a sexual purpose. This occurs and has gained a lot of force through social networks, because of the ease with which you can establish relationships.

How children's grooming begins

Grooming is a process that usually lasts for weeks or even months. In general, you can follow the following steps: 1- The adult elaborates

emotional ties and friendship with the child, pretending to be another child. A relationship begins that we call coaxing, contact, knowledge, in which the purpose of the adult is an appointment with that child that can end sexual abuse. 2- The adult

gains the confidence of the child, and through this, gets personal and contact data of the child. El 3- The adult tries to establish a physical encounter

with the child in two ways: - The adult seduces the child, teaching him / her images of sexual content

and invites the child to send him / her pictures as well. Once committed images of the child, the adult begins cyberbullying, blackmail the child to get a physical contact. - The adult cheats the child.

The adult seeks to know the interests of the child. If he sees that the interest of the child is football, or he is posing as a football coach who is interested in signing small football stars or is still a child and says that his uncle is a football coach and that he could arrange an appointment with him. And if the theme that the child likes is cinema, the stalker pretends to be a film producer, or says that he has an uncle who is, even going so far as to request a physical appointment to make the encounter . What parents can do against grooming childrenWhat parents can do to prevent their children from being

victims groom of grooming, abuse or harassment online. Follow some guidelines:

- Control the use of internet and webcams by children. - Place the computer in common areas

of the house.

- Educate the children. Teach them and ask them never to contact strangers or provide private information through the Internet. Pedir - Ask the children to

communicate any problem they notice, making it clear that it does not matter what they have done, since they will always support them. Apart from that, there are

organizations that use infiltrators as minors to identify these adults and pass the information to the police. On the other hand, there are also software or programs that allow monitoring what children do in chat rooms and in instant messaging. In Spain, there are entities that work in prevention, awareness and fight against grooming. The Alia2 Foundation, Protégeles and Friendly Screens, with some of them.