In WPSFMS I have made the point that social networking is often used to plan crimes. In the story linked here the editors use the term "grooming." This may be a term you are not familiar with unless you are a therapist or a member of law enforcement. Grooming is a term to describe a wide variety of manipulative activities used by predators on and off the internet. It is preparatory behavior intended to produce a desired future effect. A lawyer might groom his junior partner or son to take over the law firm at some time in the future. The difference here is that the sexual predator is breaking down any resistance to a future sexual encounter. In WPSFMS (my book) I describe a simple joke that is circulated on the internet. It describes in detail what could be either a first sexual encounter between an older person and a virginal partner - or - the first time a person has a tooth extracted. Posting this story on a social networking site by an older person with an intent to either reduce the resistance or arouse the curiosity of a younger child amounts to grooming en masse. It's also a bit like trolling the oceans in hopes of getting a fish, any fish, to bite. Predators are patient. In the case mentioned above the predator seeks to manipulate the natural desire to belong to special groups. He created a special society for teens to join. He demanded naked photos of young girls who wanted membership. Providing the photos was a step toward meeting him and engaging in sex. He explained that he did not like the rules of society so he had decided to start his own society. It was an attempt to create an imaginary world inside the social networking community. The story is just one more example of how imaginative the people who use social networking have become and the variety of danger that exists for the unaware.
Keep your kids close.
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