Protecting children from grooming is one of the most important priorities for parents. That’s why responsible parents are always concerned about the signs of grooming a child. The digital age comes with a lot of challenges for children. Therefore, all parents must be aware of daunting factors like child predators and scammers to ensure a safe digital environment for their children.
In this article, we will focus on the importance of monitoring kids’ online activity and what we should do about it as good parents. We will also try to find out how grooming must be done in today’s web space. Let’s start.
What is grooming? Parents should know
Child grooming is a systematic and organized process. It can be performed physically or via online methods. Predators may start contacting children. They plan to become close enough to win their trust. Afterward, they gradually start to exploit children for their personal gain.
Online predators may pretend to be someone close to the child. They may use a fake profile for this purpose. They may also send some gifts or attractive things to a child to gain attention until they reach their goal. Such things are a nightmare for parents.
For all those reasons, parents must understand the online grooming tactics. They must keep their children informed about these activities. They must also maintain open communication to discuss such possibilities. This creates a healthy and safe digital environment for kids.
What are the examples of grooming behaviors?
Online predators use multiple techniques to start and prolong their grooming activities. Every parent must understand these examples to get an idea for the future.
- Pretending to be younger: Children are more inclined towards the peer. That’s why grooming behaviors are often performed by showing the same group.
- Offering gifts and favors: Every child likes gifts. Predators know this very well. They offer gifts and promotions to children to gain their trust and attention.
- Overly sweet behavior: Children understand the sweeter language and behavior better. Predators usually treat them nicely with overly sweet.
- Inappropriate content: Predators gradually introduce inappropriate images, videos, or discussions with children, thinking of peers, children may consider it normal. This takes children into a world of dangers that is not good for their age.
- Social isolation: Groomers gradually isolate children from their family, friends, and close ones. Children feel dependent only on the groomers. They naturally develop a strong connection with the groomers out of their innocence.
That’s why parents must be aware of the signs of grooming a child. These signs will help parents evaluate their children’s behavior. They may also take necessary measures to keep their children from being exploited.
What are the 6 stages of grooming?
Let’s explore the six stages of grooming a child. Groomers commonly follow these steps to trap a child.
1. Target a child: Firstly, groomers select their target. They identify a child who can be manipulated. They usually select weak, innocent, and vulnerable kids carefully.
2. Building trust: In the second phase, predators start building trust. They interact with the child and get to know them. They develop friendships. This is the start of their emotional connection with a child.
3. Fulfilling the need: Predators know what a child needs the most. These needs mostly include the ones that their parents don’t provide them. They fulfill these needs to gain additional trust.
4. Child isolation: In this phase, groomers try to isolate children from their parents. These isolation techniques work naturally because they provide everything to a child. Children start to be dependent on predators to satisfy their needs and wants.
5. Close relationship: At this stage, groomers start to develop a close relationship with their targets. In dangerous situations, this may turn out to be a sexual relationship. This is the result of their intimate conversations with children.
6. Establish control: At the last stage, groomers have successfully established control over their target children. Children feel it is very difficult to break free of this dangerous relationship. They are also afraid of sharing their secret relationship with anyone else. That’s why they may not seek help from their parents too.
How can you tell if someone is grooming?
You have to be vigilant for your children to ensure that they are not being groomed. Knowing and predicting the signs of grooming a child is essential for parents to identify potential predators.
You can do it by monitoring your children’s behavior. Following are some of the ways you can get an idea of distinguishing a groomer around your children:
- Monitor online activities: Online predators use the internet to select their targets. You need to take a closer look at your child’s online activities. Check for the websites, social apps, chatting apps, and other activities. You may also observe your child’s online activities secretly. If your child comes to know about your presence near him, he may deceive you sometimes.
- Check kids’ behavior: Online activities often have a direct impact on offline behaviors. Check for your child’s interactions. Even if your child is showing normal behavior, you should still keep monitoring consistently.
- Get reports from school: If your child goes to school, you can check with the school authorities. Ask for your child’s behaviors in school. Check if your child ever tries to leave school with someone else. Ask about your child’s behaviors from his class-fellows.
- Monitor social circle: Keep a close check on your child’s social circle. Check with your neighbors, his local friends, and peers. Stay updated. Most importantly, get involved with your child’s close friends or relatives.
Signs that children/teens are being groomed
Grooming is a gradual process. It takes time to take effect. But a child will surely show some changes after being under the influence of grooming.
Following are some of the signs that kids/teens may show if they are being groomed. These hints will help you understand if someone is grooming your child, so you can take necessary measures.
- Behavior change: A child will show a change in behavior if he/she’s under the effect of grooming. For example, they may suddenly love to dress up with some gifts or make statements that are beyond their normal perception.
- Being introverted: Children under the grooming effect may develop more connections with predators. At the same time, they suddenly lose interest in personal and family connections in real life.
- Extended online presence: Try checking if your child has started spending more time online. If there is a visible difference in priorities for online activities, it is vital to track their online actions. Children who are in communication with online predators like to talk to the predators for most of the time.
- Excessive gifts: As parents, you must have a clear eye on your children. Especially, you should be alert if they often receive gifts that you never knew. If they have more money than their pocket money, you should also try to figure out the reasons.
- Increased secrecy: Children under the effect of grooming will show secretive behavior. They may be more focused on privacy. They may lock their rooms, especially while using the internet. They may also put additional security on their PCs and online accounts.
- Unexplained mood swings: Children who are under the grooming influences may show sudden mood swings. They may get irritated or angry on petty issues. They may also become choosy with their stuff and become a little difficult to handle.
- Bad academic performance: School-going children have a certain level of average academic performance. Parents are aware of their child’s performances. If you see sudden variations in your children’s performance, it should ring a bell.
What can we do if we see signs of grooming a child?
No parent can tolerate the grooming attempts on their children. If you even have a slight doubt about any suspicious signs of grooming a child, you must take immediate action to stop them. Following are some of the useful suggestions to protect your child from online grooming. Adopting these suggestions will help your child and other victims to lead a safer life.
1. Stronger family bonding: Online predators manipulate children’s weaknesses. If you have a communication gap with your child, you need to cover it up. Make your family bonding stronger enough that no outsider could break.
2. Discuss everything: Ensure open communication with your children. Your child must not hesitate to discuss anything with you. You should also tell them about online scams, frauds, and how predators blackmail children. You must tell them that you are always there for them.
3. Grooming awareness: You must spread information about grooming attempts in society. You must not be shy about sharing information with everyone. If your child is young enough to understand those thighs, you can tell convincing stories about grooming to inform them.
4. Monitor online activities: You must keep a close check on your children’s online activities. You must check which websites or platforms your kids are using. You should also stop them from using their PCs for extended periods.
5. Use Parental Control apps: Using Parental Control apps is one of the best and most effective ways of keeping your children away from grooming. Good Parental Control apps like FlashGet Kids are specially designed and launched to keep children protected at all times. Parents can be well aware of their children’s online activities using these apps.
6. Seek professional guidance: You can also consult professional consultants for your child. They would give you ideas about getting your kids to recover from the negative effects of grooming. Try exploring mental and psychological healthcare clinics in your area. They will guide you through the right steps to help your child recover fast.
Can grooming happen at any age?
Yes. Grooming can happen at any age. It is more common in children, especially in teenagers. But adults can also be influenced. Online predators know how to play with the emotions and simplicity of their targets.
Newspapers are full of such incidents on a daily basis. We keep hearing news of scams, fraud, and grooming for both children and adults alike. People tend to take online relationships casually from the start. They keep developing the relationship with the passage of time. This is a natural phenomenon. They only realize their mistake when they have experienced physical, mental, or financial loss.
Therefore, it is best to remain socially active. You should also keep discussing the situations happening in your society. More influx of information will equip you with more strength to combat grooming.
Conclusion
Understanding the signs of grooming a child is a must for every parent. You must be careful at the start of your children’s adolescence. If they are exploited at that stage, it may have long-term effects. You wouldn’t want that for your children.
The online world is full of scams and dangerous attempts. You need to take precautionary measures to avoid unwanted situations. Therefore, you must take steps to ensure your children’s safety right from the start.
Instead of taking corrective measures, you must take action to prevent a situation from happening. Using the FlashGet Kids app on your and your child’s devices is the excellent and most convincing idea in this regard. It offers safeguards by showing you all the online activities of your child. You can also block and limit certain apps to enhance your child’s safety.
