The Impact of the Coronavirus Pandemic on the Online Sexual Solicitation & Grooming of Minors: Guidelines For Prevention

The Impact of the Coronavirus Pandemic on the Online Sexual Solicitation and Grooming of Minors: Guidelines for Prevention

by, Georgia Winters, PhD; Leah Kaylor, PhD; Elizabeth L. Jeglic, PhD; & Caitlin E. Krause

The global spread of the coronavirus (COVID-19) has been coined the “once-in-a-century pandemic” (Gates, 2020) and has resulted in governments around the world closing schools in an effort to prevent spread (UNESCO, 2020). As many schools globally have moved education to a partially or fully online format for the 2020-2021 school year, the Internet has become a vital learning resource for children and adolescents. Many minors are also turning to social media and online gaming to overcome the loneliness and isolation of quarantine (Onion, 2020). Notably, however, while the Internet has proved to be a necessary resource during these challenging times, the increase in online engagement by children and adolescents can, in turn, leave children more vulnerable to online sexual solicitation and grooming (Jeglic, 2020). The National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC), Interpol, and may other agencies have reported an increase in online child sexual abuse due to the pandemic (Alfonso, 2020). Thus, the present article aims to address concerns regarding online solicitation and grooming in the context of the recent coronavirus pandemic, as well as provide recommendations to children, their parents, and treatment providers to improve Internet safety for youth.

Online Sexual Solicitation

The use of the Internet to target victims for child sexual abuse is a relatively new phenomenon, but an approach that has a wide reach (DeHart, et al., 2017). The anonymity of the Internet allows predators of all ages and backgrounds to target victims online (Egan et al., 2011). Moreover, the Internet may be a preferred method for predators as it allows for communication with several potential victims at one time (Alexy et al., 2005). Sexual solicitation involves an adult inviting a minor to engage in sexual conversations or activities over the Internet (e.g., sending or receiving sexually explicit photographs, using webcams; Child Exploitation Online Protection Centre [CEOPC], 2010). A recent meta-analysis confirmed there are high rates of unwanted online sexual contact (20%) and solicitation (11%) among minors (Madigan et al., 2018). Although predators often initiate contact with children online, these communications may not remain exclusively on the Internet. Research has found online offenders also contacted victims via text message and telephone calls, some with the intention of arranging an in-person meeting with the child (Tener et al., 2015).

Online Sexual Grooming

Online sexual solicitation of minors may involve the perpetrator using sexual grooming behaviors to prepare the child or adolescent for sexual abuse (Beech et al., 2008). While there is no universal definition of online sexual grooming, it generally describes the process whereby an offender emotionally manipulates the child into some form of sexually inappropriate behavior (e.g., exchanging photographs, cyber sexual activity, arranging an in-person meeting to engage in sexual contact; Ybarra et al., 2007). The Internet has the unique potential to accelerate the grooming process, likely due to the private nature of online chatting and the ability to quickly retreat if the risk of detection becomes too high (Black et al., 2015) This is concerning, since sexual grooming can have distressing consequences for the victim, such as feeling upset, fearful, unsafe, humiliated, shameful, vulnerable, threatened, or suicidal (Bowles & Keller, 2019; Mitchell et al., 2001). In general, the process of online grooming involves selecting a victim, developing a trusting relationship with the child, and introducing sexual content (O’Connell, 2003). Online perpetrators tend to select victims based on the child’s perceived vulnerabilities, access, and opportunity (Malesky, 2007). Staksrud (2013) suggested the offender begins the grooming process by observing chat room communications without participating and viewing a minor’s profile to decide who to target. The age of the child, young-sounding usernames, and the perceived neediness, submissiveness, or loneliness of the child were found to be indicative of the victim being selected for unwanted online sexual contact (Malesky, 2007; Winters et al., 2017).

After a potential victim has been selected, the predator engages the minor in a private conversation where grooming can commence. O’Connell (2003) describes two stages in the process of online sexual grooming in which the offender forms a friendship and then subsequently a more intimate relationship with the minor in an effort to gather information, determine vulnerabilities, and relate to the child. Early on, offenders often express having similar hobbies, interests, likes, and dislikes (Williams et al., 2013). The offender may seek to assess the risk of being detected by inquiring about the secretiveness of the conversation with the child (O’Connell, 2003). Some researchers have suggested that online predators may skip the friendship and relationship forming stages described previously and introduce sexual content early into the conversation, possibly to determine if the child will respond or if they need to find a new victim (Staksrud, 2013). After sexual content is introduced, online offenders frequently used compliments and flattery to facilitate the online sexual grooming process (Black et al., 2015;). While in-person grooming can take months or even years, online predators move quickly (often within just three days) from sexual conversation to participating in sending and receiving photographs, cyber sexual activity, or teaching the victim to masturbate (Briggs et al., 2011; Winters et al., 2017).

Vulnerable Online Platforms

Social Media and Chatrooms

It is estimated that 90% of adolescents between the ages of 13-17 have used social media, and 75% of those have at least one active social media account (American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, 2018). Instagram is one of the most popular social media sites for young people (Tran, 2020), and recently the NSPCC has found that it was the most common application used for child sexual grooming in the United Kingdom (UK). Over a period of six months, police recorded 1,317 cases of online sexual grooming, and of those, Instagram was used in 32% of cases, Facebook in 23%, and Snapchat in 14% (British Broadcasting Corporation [BBC], 2019). Previous research has shown some online offenders choose to pose as minors, which gives them the ability to create one or more fake social media profiles, oftentimes using a stolen profile photo (Charles, 2017). Within the chatroom or anonymous chat applications, predators are able to use a host of manipulative techniques to sexually extort and blackmail victims (e.g., dares, polls, competitions; Tribune News Service, 2018). If a minor shares sexually explicit materials of themselves, the offender may threaten to share or disseminate these materials if the child does not comply with further requests from the offender (Stolberg & Pérez-Peña, 2016).

Online Gaming

A more recent phenomenon has been the online solicitation of minors through online multiplayer video games (Bowles & Keller, 2019; Interpol 2020) that can give predators access to younger children (8 to 13 years) who may not yet be allowed to use social media (Threadgall & Horsman, 2019). According to the Pew Research Center, 97% of teenage boys and 83% of teenage girls play video games (Perrin, 2018). Many games played by younger children, like Minecraft, Roblox, Among Us, have a built-in chat function, which normalizes interacting with strangers (Bowles & Keller, 2019). This permits opportunities for online predators to gain access to children and adolescents in the gaming environment and then attempt to move communications from the gaming platform to another social media platform, such as Skype or Kik, to allow for more privacy (Threadgall & Horsman, 2019). For children streaming their game play, they can have people subscribe and donate to their page. Online offenders accessing children in gaming platforms may send money, gifts, or game credit, such as V-Bucks in the video game Fortnite, in an effort to build a relationship with the child and encourage sharing of sexually explicit images or videos. Once obtained, these images and videos may be used as blackmail to garner increasingly more graphic or violent sexually explicit materials (Bowles & Keller, 2019).

The Impact of the Coronavirus on Online Sexual Solicitation and Grooming

Since the onset of the global coronavirus pandemic in the spring of 2020, organizations like the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and the United Nations International Children’s Emergency Fund (UNICEF) have issued warnings that online offenders may be multiplying (Jeglic, 2020). NCMEC has seen an exponential rise in cybertips for online child sexual abuse; for example, in April 2019, NCMEC received one million reports on its CyberTipline compared to 4.1 million in April 2020 (Alfonso, 2020). There are several factors associated with the coronavirus pandemic that will likely increase the risk for victimization of minors online, including: 1) increased Internet usage by minors; 2) inadequate supervision; and 3) increased loneliness and heightened desire for interpersonal interactions.

A consequence of the stay-at-home orders during the coronavirus pandemic has been a surge in Internet usage amongst children and adolescents because they are using the Internet for schooling and socializing. A survey of more than 3,000 parents released at the end of April 2020 by ParentsTogether, a national parent-led organization, found that almost 50% of the parents surveyed reported that their children were spending more than six hours per day online

(aside from school) – a 500% increase from before the onset of the pandemic. As many students are now required to participate in online education, schools are providing students who previously may not have had Internetenabled devices at home with personal laptop computers in order to permit at-home learning via online forums and Zoom (Bourne, 2020). Therefore, it can be surmised that the general increase in Internet use by youth during the pandemic will produce higher levels of online contact with potentially predatory individuals. Second, given that many parents are maintaining full-time employment from home while also juggling childcare and home schooling, it is likely that these circumstances could result in inadequate online supervision and loosened screen time restrictions (Joyce, 2020). Further, lower income families, whose children may already be at an increased risk for child abuse (Runarsdottir et al., 2019), may have parents that are more likely to have jobs that are deemed essential during the pandemic, meaning that they may be required to leave children at home alone while they work (Valentino-DeVries et al., 2020). This is concerning since prior research suggests that minors engaging in conversations with adult strangers most often do so during times when supervision is lacking. Specifically, GreeneColozzi (2017) found that minors were at increased risk for online victimization over summer vacation and winter breaks and during evening or late-night hours (when parents are unlikely to be monitoring the child’s activity). With this combination of heightened Internet use and decreased supervision during the pandemic, minors may be more vulnerable to online solicitation now more than ever.

Lastly, children and teens may also be at increased risk for online solicitation during the quarantine as psychological vulnerabilities, such as loneliness and a heightened need for interpersonal communication stemming from social distancing, may make them more likely to engage in online conversations with strangers (Wolak et al., 2010). Indeed, a recent survey of 2,000 youth ages 11 to 17 revealed that 4% of respondents had received or been asked to send a sexual message to an adult, but this number nearly doubled (9%) for children who described feeling lonely, unhappy, or extraverted (NSPCC, 2020). This underscores the risk the current pandemic poses for predatory offenders to find children and teens who are likely experiencing these negative emotional states (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 2020); in fact, it is possible that an offender may even use these emotions to bond with the child, such as validating the child’s feelings of loneliness or boredom.

Recommendations

The coronavirus pandemic has created a situation where children and teens may be at greater risk for online solicitation due to their increased online presence and decreased parental supervision. A quote from Staksrud (2013) that is particularly salient to the current social climate is that “the Internet does not make children more vulnerable, but might make already vulnerable children more accessible” (p. 163) highlighting the need for improved child and parental education and support from mental health providers, as well as treatment recommendations, on how to keep children safe on the Internet, particularly during this period of increased risk.

Children

Experts recommend that children should be educated about how sharing information or photographs/videos with strangers via online chatrooms, social media websites, and gaming platforms can be dangerous (Jeglic, 2020). Organizations such as Commonsense.org have created lessons plans for children of all ages for Internet safety that can be viewed and discussed (Oh, 2020). Other similar resources can be found through the NCA and the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children (NCMEC) that also include resources for parents. Children should be educated about what information is appropriate to post or share online. Studies have shown that many minors opt to share intimate personal details with adult strangers online, including name, age, interests, hobbies, and photographs; many of whom even included this content in public profiles, which are easily accessible to any observer (Greene-Colozzi, 2017). This information can in turn be used to sexually groom potential victims by allowing predators to profess similar interests in order to build a trusting relationship (Williams et al., 2013). Moreover, since there are circumstances where the perpetrator may actually be known to the child (such as a friend of a friend), parents should discuss how sharing inappropriate content (e.g., sexual images via texting) could have negative consequences.

Parents

Many children and adolescents have access to computers or laptops, tablets, smart phones, and gaming devices. Children and teenagers who had caregivers who habitually monitored their online activity were far less likely to chat with adult strangers or experience online sexual solicitation (Greene-Colozzi, 2017) and thus, it is necessary for parents to monitor all of these devices. The parent should take special care to supervise who the child is communicating with and the type of content shared. Guidelines should also be established about family rules about online device usage and how these guidelines will be modified/enforced during quarantine. For example, children should be only using Internet-enabled devices in common areas, and caregivers should consider placing limits on the time children can spend on Internet-enabled

devices. In the context of online grooming, some predators groomed their victims over numerous conversations across a lengthy period of time (Winters et al., 2017). Therefore, limiting the excessive use of Internet sites can reduce the extent to which children can engage with potentially predatory individuals online. In addition to supervision, the majority of apps and games offer optional parental controls that can limit the user’s ability to chat with strangers, as well as block offensive and inappropriate contact and content. Further, there are more omnibus protection systems, such as Bark, FamiSafe, or Qustodio, which parents can purchase and install on their children’s devices to monitor texts, e-mails, YouTube, and over 30 social networks for safety concerns (Staples, 2020). It should be acknowledged that part of the attraction of these platforms is the ability for children and teenagers to play and talk with their friends, especially in these extremely isolating times. Therefore, if caregivers decide to permit their child to use the chat and voice functions, experts recommend that it is integral for parents and children to maintain open communication (Jeglic & Calkins, 2018). Setting aside a regular time for family discussions during the quarantine, such as dinner time or family meetings, can be helpful to establish a forum where such issues can be discussed. Regular conversations can help children feel comfortable discussing these issues with their parents, which consequently can facilitate their reporting of any predatory incidences online. As outlined by NSPCC (2020), parents should reassure their children they care and are interested in their life, inquire about what the child enjoys about their online activity, and ask about whether the child has any worries or concerns. Moreover, parents should ensure that they react carefully should their child disclose encounters with online predators, as punishing the children (e.g., restricting video game or social media use) could result in increased secrecy or engagement in risky online behaviors. Finally, if the parent notices or is informed of any suspicious or predatory online behaviors, they can consult the FBI’s website to learn how to report (FBI, 2020).

Treatment

There is a growing need for mental health resources for individuals who have sexual thoughts or behaviors involving children. Due to stay-at-home orders, there has been an increase in online offending (Parks et al., 2020). Researchers believe this increase is caused by a few factors: individuals have more time to spend online, new users are exploring the darknet for more extreme material, and individuals who have tried to quit previously have returned (Parks et al., 2020). In response, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health (2020) created a comprehensive website with resources ranging from anonymous counseling, confidential helplines, online self-help courses, referrals, and consultations. Additionally, researchers from the Karolinska Institute in Sweden created an innovative way for people to seek treatment online. The program, “Prevent It”, offers anonymous online cognitive behavioral therapy intervention for individuals who use child sexual abuse materials (CSAM) on the darknet. Advertisements for this treatment are placed on darknet CSAM websites, where participant’s privacy will be protected. By offering this intervention through the darknet, participants have the freedom to seek care without fear of legal actions based on engaging in CSAM. The intervention creators believe participants will be more open and honest compared to alternative in-person treatment methods. Blind randomized clinical trials are currently underway to determine its effectiveness for decreasing the consumption of child sexual abuse materials, but regardless, it is a step toward a solution for online offending (Parks et al., 2020).

Conclusion

The coronavirus pandemic and resulting stay-at-home orders has likely placed children and teenagers at a greater risk for online solicitation and grooming than ever before. Increased Internet use by minors, coupled with heighted psychological distress and potentially inadequate parental supervision, may result in conditions that make youth vulnerable to online exploitation. Ultimately, in the face of the numerous challenges ignited by the pandemic, the risk to youth online can likely be reduced with increased education, vigilance, and communication across various stakeholders.

About the Authors

Georgia M. Winters, PhD, is an assistant professor at Fairleigh Dickinson University’s School of Psychology and Counseling. Her research focuses on sexual grooming, paraphilias, and sexual violence prevention.

Leah Kaylor, PhD, is a licensed clinical psychologist. Her research focuses on child sexual abuse and sexual paraphilias. Elizabeth L. Jeglic, PhD, is a professor of psychology at the John Jay College of Criminal Justice and a NJ licensed clinical psychologist. Her research focuses on sexual grooming, sexual violence prevention, and evidence-based public policy. Caitlin E. Krause is currently a graduate student in Fairleigh Dickinson University’s Forensic Psychology MA program. Her research interests include paraphilic disorders, sexual trauma, and online sexual behavior.