Law enforcement agencies worldwide are concerned about cyber sexual grooming (CSG), particularly because of its potential to increasingly become transnational and global. The Internet medium facilitates CSG, where predators can draw children into a façade relationship through systematic grooming, inappropriate sexual advances and manipulation, for the purpose of sexual victimization. This article discusses four main issues. First, it discusses the definition of CSG and its inadequacies. Second, it reviews the behavioral characteristics of CSG perpetrators and victims, exposing the prevailing myths that offenders are violent paedophiles and strangers to their victims. Third, it illustrates how the CSG process unfolds through five different psychological and behavioral stages. Finally, recommendations are provided for caregivers, schools, law enforcement authorities, and adolescents to remain proactive in the prevention of and intervention in CSG.
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