Full Description
To better understand how victims themselves behave and mitigate risks to cybergrooming, we conducted an online survey with 74 participants---51 parents and 23 teens---who responded to simulated cybergrooming scenarios in two ways: responses that they think would endanger them and protect them.
Through thematic and quantitative analysis, we identified four types of vulnerable behaviors and four types of protective strategies. While parents and teens showed broadly similar patterns, we discovered significant variations across the cybergrooming stages. As the cybergrooming risk escalated, both vulnerable behaviors and protective strategies showed a corresponding progression. This study contributes a teen-centered understanding of cybergrooming and a stage-based taxonomy of protective strategies, while offering implications for educational programs and sociotechnical interventions that empower teens against cybergrooming.
