About the Project
Networked digital technologies – including messaging, social media, and gaming platforms – are evolving rapidly. Child sex offenders use these technologies to connect with and groom children anonymously, globally, and at scale. To do this, they utilise a range of specific tactics involving both deception and trust building to form friendships, that are then leveraged to lure minors into engaging in sexual behaviours. The increasing amount of time children are spending online, coupled with ever evolving technology and offending strategies, present serious challenges for the implementation of effective interventions that aim to prevent online child sexual exploitation. Therefore, it is vital for interventions to focus on removing children as targets through educational strategies that (1) improve their understanding and ability to identify risks related to online sexual exploitation, and (2) empower them to respond appropriately before they are abused.
This research project aims to build an evidence base for the development of effective educational interventions through a nationally representative survey of Australian children. The survey will map children’s experiences of different grooming tactics across popular online platforms, their perceptions of risk, and their responses to said risk. The evidence gleaned from this survey will then be used to provide practical recommendations that can be used to improve Australian educational interventions aimed at removing children as targets for online sexual abuse.
A pilot project for this research is being undertaken with partners from the Australian Institute of Criminology, the Office of the eSafety Commissioner, and an interdisciplinary team of criminologists, psychologists, and education specialists.