The Relevance of Targets’ Sexual Knowledge in the Progression of Online Sexual Grooming Events: Findings from an Online Field Experiment

Abstract

Although the typical end goal of an online grooming event is to lure a minor into performing sexual activity (either online or offline), no previous study has examined the relevance of targets’ sexual knowledge on the progression of these events. To address this gap, we deployed two honeypot chatbots which simulated young female users in a sample of twenty-three online chatrooms, over a period of three months. The first chatbot simulated a sexually knowledgeable target while the second chatbot simulated a sexually naïve target. Findings from 319 online grooming events indicate that an online grooming event is more likely to progress in the presence of a sexually knowledgeable target. Moreover, we find that online grooming events with sexually knowledgeable targets lasted longer than online grooming events with sexually naïve targets. Finally, we found that sexually knowledgeable targets were more likely to be solicited for offline encounters than sexually naïve targets.

Keywords:

• Online sexual grooming
• honeypot
• suitable target
• routine activity theory
• sexual knowledge

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1 One reason that inertia may not transfer well to cyberspace is the lack of physical properties, such as weight, of cyber-targets (Yar, 2005).

2 An American volunteer organization, where volunteers pose as children online and engage in communication with potential offenders. If the communication turns sexual, they cooperate with law enforcement to track and arrest the groomer. Perverted-Justice posts conversation logs only for cases where the groomer was convicted.

3 The IRB committee at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem approved this protocol (#001).