Where are Minors Initially Contacted for Sexual Exploitation Grooming in North America? Implications for Prevention Programming.

Abstract

Baird and Conolly's systematic review on North American domestic minor sexual exploitation claimed that the literature most frequently identifies the internet as the initial site of contact. However, in my analysis of their sources, only three of the seven identified studies indicated that the internet was the site of initial recruitment, three studies did not have enough information to make a determination, and one study did not identify the internet as the site of initial recruitment. For the papers that did cite the internet as the initial site of recruitment, most identified the internet as among the least frequent locations of initial recruitment. The internet is not the most frequent location of initial recruitment and correcting this error is important because prevention programs that focus on raising awareness of risks may lead youth to develop a false sense of safety offline and contribute to the moral panic of youth risk online. Rather, prevention programs should focus on healthy relationship skills.