online child abuse online child abuse online child abuse is a unique form of child abuse also known as “cyber molestation” due to its virtual, distanced, and anonymous nature. such abuse may not happen face-to-face, nor does it necessarily require physical contact. however, online abuse can result in negative face-to-face consequences in the form of statutory rape, forcible sexual assault, harassment, etc. in the united states, online child abuse is recognized as a form of child abuse by the national society for the prevention of cruelty to children. online abuse of children can occur through a variety of forms. including, but not limited, to cyber-bullying, grooming, and sexual abuse. such abuse requires the use of the world wide web or cellphones, increasing its significance in an increasingly technological world. the perpetrator of such online abuse may be a stranger or someone who is previously known by the victim. a report by the data & society research institute and the center for innovative public health research showed that 72% of u.s. internet users have witnessed some form of online harassment or abuse, while 47% have personally experienced it. this study found no distinction between genders with respect to harassment, but deduced that women were at risk for a wider variety of online abuse. governments across the world have acknowledged the importance of recognizing and combating online abuse of children. in the united states this effort is led by the internet crimes against children task force. this task force consists of 61 individual task forces engaging with 4,500 federal, state, and local law-enforcement agencies all with the goal of combating online abuse of children. cyber-bullying cyber-bullying, or internet bullying, occurs when an individual or group electronically distributes negative, false, or otherwise harmful content about an individual or group using personal or private information that causes humiliation or distress to that individual. cyber-bullying can happen through the use of any device that is able to connect to the internet (desktop, mobile devices, gaming devices, etc.) of cellphones and does not require the perpetrator to be in the same vicinity of the victim. cyber-bullying is especially prevalent among children as an extension of bullying within schools. a canadian research study found that children who were victims of cyber-bullying and also bullied in school were more likely to bully others over cyberspace. prevalence studies show a rising trend in online bullying. although it remains the least-reported form of bullying it is relatively hidden and believed to be under-reported. because victims often cannot evade cyber-bullies, they may harbor feelings of guilt, incompetence or despair. upwards of 37% of victims of cyber-bullying do not report their abuse. according to statistics of cyber-bullying from the i-safe foundation, more than 50% of adolescents have been the victims of cyber-bullying, where one-third of them have been threatened online. a roughly equal number admit to having engaged in perpetrating cyber-bullying themselves. of the victims that reported their abuse, 25% reported repeated cyber-bullying. the harford county examiner reported that far more than 50% of child victims hid the issue from their parents when it occurred. the same examination reported that 1 in 10 youths had damaging photos taken of themselves without their permission, and that girls are more likely to be involved with cyber-bullying than boys, both as bullies and as victims. different social groups and ages tend to receive differing amounts of unwanted negative feedback. for example, a reported 55.2% of young lgbtq community members have been victims of cyber-bullying. another trend shows that school-aged children are more likely to be victims of online abuse. variation a study in 2011 found three primary reasons for targeting others over the internet: informal social control, dominance, and entertainment. informal social control is applying pressure to change another person's behavior. dominance refers to the attempt(s) of hurting someone, humiliating someone, or gaining access to their personal information (secrets, explicit photos, etc.). entertainment refers to what is commonly known as trolling: purposefully humiliating, annoying, or bothering someone for the purpose of eliciting an emotional response for the bully's enjoyment. perpetrators of trolling are called trolls, which are a subset of cyberbullies. effects cyber-bullying is very common among children and young adults that are ten to eighteen years old. victims of cyber-bullying, often feel negative about themselves after being bullied. it is also common for cyber-bullying to have negative effects on cyber victims' social well-being because it has a negative impact on their self-esteem. another consequence of cyber-bullying is that a cyber victim may fear for their own safety. further research conducted by patchin & hinduja (2010) found that those involved with cyber-bullying, as perpetrators, victims, or both, have significantly lower self-esteem than those who have little to no exposure to cyber-bullying. kowalski & limber (2013) also found that bullies and victims had the most negative scores on most measures of psychological health, physical, health, and academic performance. united states in the united states, parents are encouraged to monitor their children's online activity and deal with cyber-bullying appropriately. if cyber-bullying involves sexual content or sexting, however, the cyberbully and their parents can also be subject to legal consequences, including being registered as sexual offenders. cyber-bullying that does not involve explicit sexual content can be more difficult to prosecute because there are no federal laws directly protecting children from direct forms of cyber-bullying. cases of cyber-bullying are difficult to pursue in the united states due to infringement on first amendment rights (i.e.: freedom of speech). u.s. schools can take action on incidents that occur outside of school if there is either a clear 'disruption to the educational process' or a 'true' threat to one (or more) of the students. for an expression to be considered a 'true' threat, the federal court must determine "whether a reasonable person would foresee that the statement would be interpreted by those to whom the maker communicates the statement as a serious expression of intent to harm or assault". as cyberbulling is increasingly recognized as a nationwide issue in the united states, whether or not public schools can limit their students' speech outside of school hours is becoming more of an issue. high-profile cases of cyberbullying have been brought to the attention of state and local legislatures, and most u.s. states have implemented laws that ban any online communication that aims to cause humiliation, emotional distress, or fright. prosecution of cyber-bullying cases are usually a combination of civil laws that best fit the nature of each individual case. most states have both anti-bullying laws and policies, save for arizona, arkansas, colorado, hawaii, mississippi, missouri, north carolina, and texas. stopbullying.gov, a federal agency tasked with preventing all forms of bullying, has created a detailed list of state laws and policies. an examples of a state anti-bullying campaign is the massachusetts aggression reduction center, which provides curriculum to educators about cyber-bullying and its connection to bullying inside of schools. cyber-bullying was specifically targeted in federal law by the megan meier cyber-bullying prevention act introduced to the house of representatives in 2009. this prevention act sought to: amend the federal criminal code to impose criminal penalties on anyone who transmits in interstate or foreign commerce a communication intended to coerce, intimidate, harass, or cause substantial emotional distress to another person, using electronic means to support severe, repeated, and hostile behavior. this act was the result of the suicide of megan meier in 2006. megan was the victim of cyber-bullying by a mother and teen daughter, which resulted in megan committing suicide in her home in missouri. grooming grooming is a phenomenon that can occur on or offline. the official definition of grooming used by the u.s. department of justice is: a method used by offenders that involves building trust with a child and the adults around a child in an effort to gain access to and time alone with her/him. in extreme cases, offenders may use threats and physical force to sexually assault or abuse a child... the offender may assume a caring role, befriend the child or even exploit their position of trust and authority to groom the child and/or the child's family. these individuals intentionally build relationships with the adults around a child or seek out a child who is less supervised by adults in her/his life. this increases the likelihood that the offender's time with the child is welcomed and encouraged. the above definition emphasizes the use of the child's family in building trust with the child. when grooming occurs online, however, this is frequently done without the knowledge or compliance of any adult. when children can use the internet without supervision, there is more room for potential abuse. online grooming itself can be driven by a variety of things. most common is the use of online grooming to build a trusting relationship with a child in order to engage in either online or in-person sexual acts. the internet is used to lead a child to potential sexual behavior. grooming can also be used for other forms of exploitation of the child, such as blackmail for monetary gain and more. the two forms may be used in combination, with groomers convincing children to perform these sexual acts, such as the sending of nude photographs, and then blackmailing the victim by threatening to release information about them. variation online grooming can occur in a variety of ways. most commonly, chat rooms or social networks are used to make initial contact with possible victims. groomers may also use photo-sharing apps, dating apps, or gaming websites to find their victims. after establishing an online relationship, the groomer turns conversations to more personal matters, frequently sexual topics. groomers may then engage in sexual conversations with their victims, send nude photos or videos, encourage sexual acts on webcam, or persuade the victim to meet in person for sexual acts. groomers are not exclusively strangers. they can be family friends or individuals who have met the child before but primarily use the internet in order to strengthen that relationship for future exploitation of the child. individual groomers can be of any sex, gender, or age. grooming is considered a complicated matter, and groomers may use many tactics. groomers may use compliments or make promises to the child in order to elicit certain behaviors. groomers may also assert control over the child to exploit natural sexual curiosity. frequently, groomers make a fake profile in order to create a persona more likely to be trusted by their possible victims. such a phenomenon is known as catfishing. the definition of a catfish is "a person who sets up a false personal profile on a social networking site for fraudulent or deceptive purposes." although catfishing is not exclusively used by online groomers, it is a common way in which groomers contact their potential victim and build trust through a more-trustworthy false identity. catfishing itself is not illegal in the united states, unlike identity theft, but when used as a method for online grooming is considered as the crime of grooming. prevalence grooming and overall online abuse of children is an issue of growing concern in the modern technological era. victims of online grooming are frequently young teens, with the majority of victims being between the ages of 13 and 15. in a 2012 literature review of research in the area conducted by various english scholarly institutions, it was found that 9% of internet users aged 10–17 reported unwanted online sexual solicitation or attempted grooming. united states in the united states, grooming is considered a federal offense. several federal laws include sections involving grooming. under section § 2422 of the united states criminal code:(a) whoever knowingly persuades, induces, entices, or coerces any individual to travel in interstate or foreign commerce, or in any territory or possession of the united states, to engage in prostitution, or in any sexual activity for which any person can be charged with a criminal offense, or attempts to do so, shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than 20 years, or both. (b) whoever, using the mail or any facility or means of interstate or foreign commerce, or within the special maritime and territorial jurisdiction of the united states knowingly persuades, induces, entices, or coerces any individual who has not attained the age of 18 years, to engage in prostitution or any sexual