Social Media: A Gateway for Online Child Grooming

Abstract

Advances in technology have provided people with unparalleled opportunities to communicate efficiently and in real time. Adults with an inappropriate sexual interest in children have also benefited from developments in information and communications technology, using it to establish contact with them, to develop relationships, and to groom potential victims for sexual abuse and exploitation. Based on this, this study examined how social media has become a gateway for online child grooming. The study was anchored on the luring communication theory. The study adopted in-depth interview as its research design. The study used purposive sampling technique to draw a sample size of 15 experts. Findings from the study revealed that since the introduction of social media platforms, the amount of child sexual abuse content has been increasing yearly as these platforms have become a channel that offenders use in soliciting and sharing of explicit images and videos of minors.