Can a Teenager Be Groomed?

What is Grooming

• Grooming involves building a relationship, trust, and connection to manipulate, exploit, and abuse.
• Touch is often involved in physical grooming.
• Online grooming crimes have increased over 80%.
• Teenagers and young adults can be groomed by strangers or people they know.

Grooming in Schools

• Back to school is an ideal time for traffickers to find and manipulate young people through trust and relationship building.
• Traffickers may have scouts in schools to identify targeted kids.

Legal Aspects of Grooming

• You can face charges for grooming a minor under 15.
• Any child is at risk of being groomed.

Age Limit for Grooming

• Teenagers are 13-19 years old.
• The UN defines a child as under 18 unless majority is attained earlier.

Signs of Grooming

• Grooming is subtly asserting inappropriate control over a vulnerable person like a child.
• Signs include excessive interest and contact out of nowhere.