Final Report - European Online Grooming Project

‘States Parties shall take all appropriate legislative, administrative, social and educational measures to
protect the child from all forms of physical or mental violence, injury or abuse, neglect or negligent treatment,
maltreatment or exploitation, including sexual abuse, while in the care of parent(s), legal guardian(s) or any
other person who has the care of the child’. http://www2.ohchr.org/english/law/crc.htm#part1
The UNRC is clear regarding under 18 being the age of consent but there is geographically wide variation.
Defining childhood in this way is clearly problematic and this issue continues to prove a barrier to any
international consensus in child safeguarding law. The UNCRC also contains important general principles
which should be taken into account throughout all relevant legislation and measures, including the principle
that the child’s best interests should be taken into account in actions which affect them. There is also an
Optional Protocol to the CRC on the Sale of Children, Child Prostitution and Child Pornography which is the
only universal treaty specifically addressing this topic. The Committee on the Rights of the Child has been
set up to monitor the implementation of the convention by states, but it is unfortunate that the convention has
no real legal teeth and cannot force states to follow its recommendations.
Political initiatives at National and EU level
The concept of sexual grooming is well documented in the sex offender literature (Finkelhor, 1984), and is
now filtering into legislation policy, crime detection and prevention initiatives. The UK was the first member
state to introduce the new offence category of ‘grooming’. The Sexual Offences Act (2003) in England and
Wales, and Northern Ireland and the Protection of Children and Prevention of Sexual Offences Act (2005) in
Scotland includes the offence of ‘meeting a child following certain preliminary contact’ (section 1).
‘Preliminary contact’ refers to occasions where a person arranges to meet a child who is under 16, having
communicated with them on at least one previous occasion (in person, via the Internet or via other
technologies), with the intention of performing sexual activity on the child. The definition of UK ‘grooming’
legislation is provided by the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) (England and Wales):
‘The offence only applies to adults; there must be communication (a meeting or any other form of
communication) on at least two previous occasions; it is not necessary for the communications to be of a
sexual nature; the communication can take place anywhere in the world; the offender must either meet the
child or travel to the pre-arranged meeting; the meeting or at least part of the journey must take place within
the jurisdiction; the person must have an intention to commit any offence within or outside of the UK (which
would be an offence in the jurisdiction) under Part 1 of the 2003 Act. This may be evident from the previous
communications or other circumstances eg an offender travels in possession of ropes, condoms or lubricants
etc; the child is under 16 and the adult does not reasonably believe that the child is over 16’. (CPS, 2007).
Norway (2007), Sweden (2009) and the Netherlands (2010) are the only other European countries to have
adopted the grooming legislation. The relevant sections in the General Civil Penal Code ("straffeloven")
concerned with sexual offenders in Norway are: Section 195. Any person who engages in sexual activity with
a child who is under 14 years of age shall be liable to imprisonment for a term not exceeding 10 years. If the
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