Online grooming legislation: Knee-jerk regulation?

Abstract

The study explores whether or not the perceived threats of paedophiles grooming online cause disproportionate legislative reactions. This is done by reviewing if and how the legislative assumptions about the nature of grooming leading to specific grooming legislation in Norway match the actual user experiences of Norwegian children in general and those subjected to physical abuse following Internet encounters in particular. The expressed political assumptions (about how children use the Internet) leading to the Norwegian grooming legislation implemented in 2007 are compared with the actual experiences of Norwegian children between 9 and 16 years, regarding the same assumptions as documented in nationally representative statistical surveys conducted in 2003, 2006 and 2008. The findings show that the Norwegian grooming legislation was redundant, both legally and practically. The potential implications for prescriptive work, as well as the wider democratic dilemmas are discussed.