Online child sexual abuse

Sexual abuse through social networking sites has become increasingly concerning in recent years, with the Internet offering opportunities for sex offenders to engage in online grooming behaviour. The aim of this chapter is to offer a critical overview of the nature of online sexual abuse: it explores some of the risks children face online, including sexual solicitation. This chapter also presents the types of online groomers that have been identified in the latest studies and the classification of child abuse images, considered part of the abuse process. It suggests that on the one hand, more needs to be done in ensuring that children are fully aware of the online risks; on the other hand, governments worldwide need to direct more resources to ensure high-quality training and support is available to frontline police officers to help tackle child sex offences, especially online