Digital Grooming

Abstract

AbstractThis chapter brings together the book’s key findings and lays out how these may be applied in real-life scenarios to help combat digital sexual, commercial, and ideological grooming. Commonalities and nuances across the styling acts identified in the digital sexual, ideological, and commercial grooming datasets are examined. The identification of a common discourse of manipulation that deliberately mobilizes self and other styling to suit groomers’ goals, and of the specific nuances therein, is a significant step forward in academic understanding of digital grooming. To demonstrate the value of examining digital grooming—and more broadly manipulation—from an identity-focused approach, Chapter 9 also makes explicit the unique contribution that discourse-based disciplines can make to societal issues. This is done by reflecting on several academia–practitioner collaborations, which show readers how the analyses and approaches detailed in this book can, and are, impacting practitioner agendas, ranging from policymaking efforts at enhancing social media platform regulation so that it more efficiently clamps down on abusive, hateful, or otherwise manipulative communication to third-sector and industry development of targeted prevention and detection interventions to promote digital civility and safety.