Reactions of Children and Adolescents to Sexual Online Grooming

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.

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