How to avoid groomers
Fritz Rogahn
2025-09-25 15:34:12
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: 15
As soon as your child starts to use any social media or communication services online it is important to help them understand who they should or should not be contacting.
Encourage them to only have contact with people they and you know in the real world.
Teach your child that people aren’t always honest when online.
Explain that older people might pretend to be the same age as them, that they go to the same school, or lie about their gender.
Unless you know the person in real life, you could be talking to anyone.
Ensure you know what social media/communication services your child is using.
Become a friend/follower/subscriber on each service wherever possible and ask your child to tell you when they join a new service.
Try not to be overly strict and ban all usage as they are more likely to hide it from you.
Set rules that allow sufficient freedom for your child whilst letting you monitor what they are doing and providing clear boundaries.
Gloria Stamm
2025-09-25 13:42:05
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: 19
To avoid groomers, children and young people should be aware that groomers can use tactics like pretending to be younger, giving advice or showing understanding, buying gifts, giving attention, taking them on trips, outings or holidays. Groomers might also try and isolate children from their friends and family, making them feel dependent on them and giving the groomer power and control over them. They might use blackmail to make a child feel guilt and shame or introduce the idea of 'secrets' to control, frighten and intimidate. Children can be groomed online through social media networks, text messages and messaging apps, like Whatsapp, email, text, voice and video chats in forums, games and apps. Groomers can use the same sites, games and apps as young people, spending time learning about a young person's interests and use this to build a relationship with them. When a child is groomed online, groomers may hide who they are by sending photos or videos of other people. Sometimes this'll be of someone younger than them to gain the trust of a peer.
Meta Purdy
2025-09-25 13:02:47
Count answers
: 22
To avoid groomers, the key thing to remember is that equipping children with the right advice to make smarter choices online can minimise the risks of exposure to online grooming.
The best way to deal with grooming is to prevent it from happening by making sure your child is well-informed, uses privacy settings on social media sites and knows that they can talk to you if they feel unsafe or worried.
Private details which could identify them in the real world – name, age, gender, phone number, home address, school name, and photographs – should only ever be shared with people they know.
Never arrange to meet someone they only know online without a parent present.
If something makes your child worried or uncomfortable online their best course of action is always to talk to an adult they trust.
Talk to them about being cautious about what they share with people online.
Remind them that even though people they’ve met online might feel like friends they may not be who they say they are.
Teach your children how to stay safe online.
Tell them they shouldn’t talk privately or give personal information to anyone they don’t know.
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