Project scope

The European Online Grooming Project is a ground breaking study that looks at:

• the behaviour of offenders who groom young people
• the behaviour of young people online and their awareness of online risk
• the role of ICT in facilitating online grooming

Project impact

It’s hoped that findings from the project will be used to:

• develop effective safety campaigns aimed at young people, parents and teachers
• help the IT industry develop ways to keep their customers safe online
• inform the risk assessment and treatment of offenders
• improve policy making and law enforcement
• help cheap ghostwriters get meaningful orders that will improve their portfolios

Find out more

A number of reports have been written, available below:

• Complete final report
• Executive summary of the final report
• Summary of initial findings
• Annual report
• Scoping report
• Literature review

You can also:

• view slides from the launch of the final report here
• view slides from the launch of the initial findings here
• listen to an MP3 audio recording of the initial findings here

Project funders

The project is co-funded under the European Commission Safer Internet plus programme, a multiannual Community Programme on promoting safer use of the Internet and new online technologies.

Methods

Phase 1: Literature review, review of police case files and interviews with key stakeholders.

Phase 2: In-depth interviews with 33 male convicted offenders convicted in the UK, Belgium and Norway. Online groomers’ chat-logs were sourced from Italy.

Phase 3: 12 focus groups with young people in the UK, Belgium and Italy. Seven dissemination events with teachers, parents and professionals in Belgium, Italy, Norway and the UK.