Reactions of Children and Adolescents to Sexual Online Grooming

706

Abstract

All over the world, children and adolescents actively use the Internet to meet and communicate with others. This provoke an increase of cases of sexual harassment of minors by adults in the virtual reality (online grooming). The article presents the results of a study of 186 communications between male adult and children, including the establishment of a primary contact between them and its further development. Using qualitative analysis and descriptive statistics methods, various reactions of children to a new contact and the psychological impact of adults are described, including the dependance on the grooming stages. The conclusion is made about the general resistance of young people to sexual harassment. The factors that increase the stability and the methods used by young people to suppress unwanted communication are indicated. Vulnerabilities for online grooming are also highlighted. Directions for further research of the problem are proposed.

General Information

Keywords: online grooming, children, chatting, internet, minors, reactions.

Journal rubric: Legal Psychology of Childhood

Article type: scientific article

DOI: https://doi.org/10.17759/psylaw.2020100111

For citation: Medvedeva A.S. Reactions of Children and Adolescents to Sexual Online Grooming [Elektronnyi resurs]. Psikhologiya i pravo = Psychology and Law, 2020. Vol. 10, no. 1, pp. 123–132. DOI: 10.17759/psylaw.2020100111. (In Russ., аbstr. in Engl.)

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Information About the Authors

Anna S. Medvedeva, PhD in Psychology, Senior Researcher, Laboratory of Psychology of Child and Adolescence, V.P. Serbsky National Medical Research Centre for Psychiatry and Narcology of the Ministry of Health of the Russian Federation, Lead Forensic Expert, North-Western Regional Center of Forensic Expertise of the Ministry of Justice of Russia, Moscow, Russia, ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0921-588X, e-mail: 98765_89@mail.ru

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