Final Report - European Online Grooming Project

It’s easier to talk on the phone, when I was talking on the phone it was like I was right next to them, like I was
face-to-face with them (UK participant, female victim age 10-12).
The text ones would be like ‘how are you, how’s your day, what you’ve been up to’. Sometime in the morning
she would text me and say ‘morning’ and I would say ‘morning’ back. We would also sometimes text
‘goodnight’ to each other. (UK participant, female victim age 13-15).
The relationship between mode of contact, the need for intimacy and the overarching style of some online
groomers is discussed further in chapter 5.
Finally, online game platforms such as the Xbox were also used by some participants in the sample to
contact young people, via the online multiplayer function to some games. The distinguishing feature of this
type of contact was that they were only used by men who were attempting to groom young boys. In some
respect, this approach represents a ‘rational choice’ for men sexually interested in boys, as the evidence
suggests that young men tend to be online playing games more than young females (Hartman & Klimmt,
2006).
Aside from the extent of potential boys to contact, there are two dimensions of online gaming that made this
method an attractive place to target young people. The first was that playing a game, such as online roleplay,
helped to reinforce the fantasy, or ‘unreal’ aspect of what is clearly offending behaviour. This then
reinforces Suler’s concept of dissociative imagination driving the behaviour of some people online.
I started with the name (online character) as that was the name of the character I was playing online. I then
became more into fantasy play and so changed my name to (mythical creature name) (UK participant, male
victims age 5-12).
The second dimension relates to online gaming performance reinforcing the credibility of the offender as
somebody worth talking to. That is, being competent at online games and ‘leveling up’ by gaining experience
points means a great deal to some online players (Williams, Consalvo, Caplan & Yee, 2009). Consequently,
some offenders talked about how they could use their considerable online scores as a way to ‘attract’ and
open up conversations with some young boys.
I spent a lot of time playing (name of online war game) with boys. I was good, it was a ‘shoot em up’ (UK
participant, male victims age 5-12).
All three methods of contact described above highlight the extent on online disinhibition amongst the men in
this sample. For example, offenders felt comfortable using a webcam to show them masturbating to young
people watching, or using the telephone for ‘phone sex’. It is clear however that these data also provide
strong support for Ward and Hudson’s concept of approach goals to help understand the choices made by
some online groomers. That is, some offenders articulated clear goals that underpinned their chosen method
of contact (telephone to increase intimacy; online gaming to present credibly and so on).
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