45 minutes is all it takes for a perpetrator to groom a child in an online gaming environment, according to Ida Östensson, Secretary General of Child X. The figure comes from the international children's rights organization We Protect's report from 2023.
"It's like a half-time in football or an episode in a reality series. The perpetrators use new methods all the time – and the adult world must keep up to be able to protect their children", she says in a press release.
To understand what kind of messages one's child can receive, Child X, in collaboration with Tele2, launches Groominggeneratorn, which automatically sends messages to those who register.
"The experience can be uncomfortable, but it is crucial for us to understand how manipulative these processes are and how we can better protect children", says Ida Östensson.
Child X has conducted several different surveys together with, among others, Novus and Verian (formerly Sifo). In one of them, it emerges that every third young person has at some point received unwanted questions about sending naked pictures of themselves. In another recently conducted survey, six out of ten parents state that they worry about their children being groomed online.
