Online grooming (OG) is a process through which an adult uses new technologies to establish a dynamic of sexual persuasion and victimization through online contacts in order to obtain sexual content from the child (Webster et al., 2012, see Barber & Bettez, 2020 for a review on OG definitions). This phenomenon is a way of benefiting from young people’s lack of maturity, with potential negative consequences for their psychological, physical, and social well-being.

We can divide offenders according to different parameters. Firstly, there would be pedofiles (attracted mainly by minors) and not pedofiles. The first ones would be around half in our sample, and did not show as many narcissistic traits and manipulative strategies as the non pedophiles. The last ones seemed to enjoy the power relationship, while the first ones would enjoy the freedom, the adventure and the feeling of not being judged. Secondly, they overlap, but only partially with another category that would differentiate between the crush/lover and abuser/multiple victims offenders. Finally we need to consider that there are slow offenders, who take the time to seduce minors, as well as fast offenders, who go straight to the point.