Online Sexual Grooming of Children and Adolescents involves a potential online offender (above the age of 18) initiating communication with a minor (under the age of 16), sometimes by pretending to be a child, to ‘achieve’ sexual contact or content from their victims. The Internet has dramatically escalated the sexual grooming problem by increasing access to children, allowing different exchanges of sexual content, and reducing the risk of getting caught. It made abuse easy to execute using different high-quality imaging technology, effortlessly, and with anonymity. Alone and in the comfort of their home, individuals can act upon their sexual desires and explore their secret curiosities conveniently, cheaply, and relatively risk-free.

The  Online Sexual Grooming of Children and Adolescents project has three key aims:

1. To evaluate the situational and opportunity factors afforded by online places (websites, chat rooms, forums, blogs, etc.) that contribute to the Online Sexual Grooming of Children and Adolescents event.

2. Examine the effect of actively monitoring children’s online activities in preventing  Online Sexual Grooming of Children and Adolescents?

3. To evaluate the effect of target suitability in the form of sexual experience on the progression of  Online Sexual Grooming of Children and Adolescents.

 To answer our questions, we intend to run a systematic review and meta-analysis of existing studies and conduct two honeypot simulated experiments.