In today’s digital world, children and teens are growing up online, learning, socializing, and building relationships through screens. While technology offers incredible opportunities, it also creates new pathways for exploitation. One of the most dangerous and often misunderstood of these is online enticement.

Online enticement occurs when an adult uses digital platforms to build trust with a minor for sexual exploitation or abuse. These interactions may begin innocently but are often carefully calculated, gradually crossing boundaries until a child is manipulated into unsafe situations. For traffickers and abusers, online spaces have become one of the most effective tools for access and control.

How Online Enticement Happens

Perpetrators rarely start with overt threats. Instead, they rely on grooming behaviors designed to make a child feel seen, valued, and understood. This can include frequent compliments, private conversations, shared “secrets,” or pretending to be someone closer to the child’s age. Over time, these interactions can become sexualized or coercive.

In many cases, the goal is to obtain explicit images or videos, which are then used for sextortion, a form of abuse where the child is threatened with exposure unless they comply with further demands. Other times, the offender attempts to arrange an in-person meeting, placing the child at serious risk of physical harm, trafficking, or disappearance.

Where Children Are Most Vulnerable

Online enticement can occur on almost any platform where communication is possible. Social media, gaming chats, messaging apps, and live-streaming platforms are common spaces where children interact with people they don’t truly know. The risk increases when children:

● Communicate with strangers online

● Misrepresent their age to access adult platforms

● Share personal information or images

● Feel isolated, unsupported, or misunderstood offline

These vulnerabilities are not failures of the child – they are opportunities exploited by offenders.

The Connection to Human Trafficking

Online enticement is not just an online safety issue; it is a front-end tactic of human trafficking. Many trafficking cases begin with digital contact, where traffickers identify, groom, and manipulate minors long before exploitation becomes visible. By the time a child is physically trafficked, the emotional and psychological control may already be firmly established.

This is why prevention must start early, before exploitation escalates.

What Prevention and Protection Look Like

Protecting children from online enticement requires a collective effort:

● Education for parents, caregivers, and youth about online risks and warning signs

● Open communication, where children feel safe reporting uncomfortable interactions

● Monitoring and boundaries around online activity that prioritize safety without shame

● Swift reporting of suspicious or exploitative behavior to the appropriate authorities

Most importantly, we must continue to center survivors – believing them, supporting them, and advocating for systems that protect rather than punish.

Our Commitment to Innocence Freed

At Innocence Freed, we recognize that exploitation evolves – and so must our response. By raising awareness about online enticement, we aim to interrupt exploitation before it takes root. Prevention, advocacy, and survivor support are all critical in the fight against trafficking, both online and offline.

Every conversation, every report, and every informed adult can make a difference. Online spaces should never be hunting grounds for exploitation, and together, we can help keep children safe.

 

By: Isaiah Langworthy