Online Grooming
Online grooming is when an adult builds trust with a child online to manipulate or exploit them, often gradually and across several apps. Parents are better protected by recognising the pattern and keeping open conversations than by any single tool; the official guidance below describes the warning signs.
Official source: missingkids.org →
The pattern is gradual rather than abrupt, and it is the gradualness that makes it hard to name from outside: each step is small enough to seem unremarkable, and the sequence is often spread across more than one application.
Which behaviours constitute an offence, and from what age, is set by national law and is not established by the guidance cited here.
Sources 1 source on record · Tracked since 2026-07-01
Sources
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