Harrowing Reality Of Child Sexual Grooming

Kids today, predators tomorrow? What lies in the deep web and behind closed doors can initiate the horrifying cycle of child sexual abuse. Jolin Kwok sheds light on the dark affair of sexual grooming.

- Jolin Kwok

I thought Aaron* just wanted to be friends. Although later that night, I realised there was more to it. “I thought were just going to hang out,” I blurted, when I found myself in his room and noticed he took off his loafers and socks. “Yeah,” he slurred, his face flushed red from the whisky from the bar downstairs. “We are hanging out.”

No way, I thought, as I made a quick exit. I ’m sure “Let ’s hang out” isn’t spelled the same way as “Let ’s hook up”. Yes, we met on Tinder, like many others did. He was friendly, charming and decent-looking. Being new to this matchmaking app, you could say I was naïve, but at 27, I should have known better. Stranger plus room doesn’t always equate “just friends”. I was lucky enough to leave unscathed, but, unlike me, an adult, children don’t get the same privilege.

REALITY BYTES

In our smartphone era, the deep dark web is a potent threat to children who are at their most impressionable. When Sara*, met Ethan*, when she was 14 through the People Nearby function of We Chat, she thought she was going to make a new friend, or a boyfriend. She was instead added to a group of strangers who all shared a common interest: Pornography.

Feeding off her teenage curiosity and ignorance, Ethan kept sending Sara sexual videos, to “educate” her, and eventually asked for sexual favours in return, to which she obliged. Once her curiosity reached its peak, she agreed to meet with him, after school, and that was when he raped her.