Besides the emotional devastation which sexual grooming causes, the consequences could reach as far as a child’s future employability, damaging their online profile.
One of the main reasons why people are drawn to social media sites is to make new friends, right?
When last have you had your cyberspace friends over for dinner, when last did you see them physically and do you know who they really are?
How many cyberspace friends does your child have? The chances are good that they might have long conversations with people they have never met, whom they think are coincidently interested in the same sports and who really care enough to spend time with them while the rest of the household is fast asleep.
This is how sexual predators build a connection with a child, to gain their trust, with the specific aim of sexually abusing and exploiting him or her. Child sex offenders (paedophiles) feed the cycle of child abuse material and child pornography, which are made public and used as part of the bigger money-making network.
The child is usually unaware of the process and is manipulated in a subtle enough way for them to agree to do things with which they previously felt uncomfortable and fall into the trap without even realising that they have been caught.
Besides the emotional devastation sexual grooming causes, the long-term consequences could reach as far as your child’s future employability, damaging their online profile.
Are you wondering how this could be true for your child?
A recent study done by the Youth Research Unit of the Bureau of Market Research at the University of SA, where 1 500 secondary school pupils in Gauteng were interviewed, showed that 24,4% of pupils were persuaded to perform sexual acts.
A total of 13,3% eventually performed sexual acts against their will. Of that 48,2% entered into open sex talk and 59,6% took and sent pictures of themselves naked or semi-naked.
According to the survey, 18,8% of the pupils had conducted sexual acts via a webcam.
The survey showed that 31,8% who experienced online sexual grooming reported the incident.