Discovered and disclosed: Examining discourses about online grooming by child-victims and their caregivers

Abstract

[EN] This chapter analyses the discourse of disclosure and discovery of OG in the context of a child helpline in Spain. Overall, the results show a close alignment between discovery and disclosure discourses with regards to the representation of groomers tactical communication and facework. Children and child caregivers were particularly attuned to groomers use of the Deceptive Trust Development and Sexual Gratification groomer tactics, and to the groomers facework aligned to those tactics. Other tactics (and associated facework) were also referenced in the discovery and disclosure reports, albeit that less frequently. As for the analysis of the references to children s own communicative behaviour during OG, the findings overall point to a number of similarities between the discovery and the disclosure reports, but also to some important differences.The results of this study show the importance of amplifying the voice of children in research into issues that impact them directly.