More than 60 percent of children interact online with people they don’t know on a daily basis, despite being aware of the dangers of grooming.
A global study, conducted by the Western Sydney University, found while children across all cultures and age groups were more suspicious of people they didn’t know online than people they knew in person, 66 percent of the study participants still interacted with “unknown others” daily.
Professor Amanda Third said the research team held in-depth consultations with hundreds of young people aged eight to 18 from Australia, Finland, the Philippines, Cambodia, Colombia, Kenya, and South Africa.
Professor Third said children were finding their own ways to tackle the grooming issue and devising solutions, but were also calling for help to equip them and their caregivers with the skills and knowledge needed to be able to safely navigate rapidly evolving digital environments.
She said said since the COVID-19 pandemic, incidents of online grooming and child sexual and financial exploitation had reached an all-time high, with an 82 percent rise in online grooming crimes against children reported in that period.
“Online grooming practices have also transformed, with the fastest growing form of online grooming targeting young men for financial extortion.”
She said the report found children were more inclined to connect with strangers online as they matured and became more social, motivated by a desire for friendship, fun and play, followed by a wish to stay informed about trends and events, and to connect over shared interests.
“Children in high-income settings were twice as likely to use privacy settings to protect themselves from unwanted contacts, compared to children from some low-income settings, but the potential to derive financial benefits was an incentive for children in middle-income countries to connect with strangers online, potentially compromising their safety.”
Professor Third said children reported that it was very difficult to ascertain the intentions of strangers online.
“Children were also particularly worried about being asked for personal information or nude pictures, being drawn into inappropriate sexually-oriented exchanges, or exposure to criminal activities.”
She said the report found that children wanted and needed better online protection, with children primarily using intuition and background checks rather than seeking help from trusted adults to manage their online interactions with people they didn’t know.
“The data also showed that children distinguish people they know well both online and in person from those they only know online, with 86 percent approaching the latter with caution.
“Yet despite this wariness, children were still three times more likely to ignore or decline an inappropriate or unwanted request than they are to report or block it.”
