Illicit digital activity is a substantial and growing problem. Extremists' use of social media over the past decade or so has raised increasing concern among governments and media corporations alike. In Digital Grooming Nuria Lorenzo-Dus analyzes manipulation practices in digital spaces that are situated at, or beyond, the boundaries of law. Lorenzo-Dus identifies and examines in detail the online discourse of adults luring children for sexual abuse and exploitation (digital sexual grooming); extreme ideology groups aligning others to their views (digital ideological grooming); and drug dealers soliciting business in crypto markets (digital commercial grooming). With sophisticated style and stance analyses of large and varied datasets, the book reveals that digital sexual, ideological, and commercial grooming practices have much in common. Three stances--expertise, openness, and avidity--scaffold this manipulative work, which constructs groomers and their targets as sharing a
homogenous identity.
By shedding new light on grooming practices, this book provides a key resource for discourse analysis, forensic linguistics, communication, and media studies, as well as for practitioners aiming to counter online grooming through policy changes, detection software, and prevention-focused training to promote digital civility and safety.
Author(s): Nuria Lorenzo-Dus
Series: Oxford Studies in Sociolinguistics
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Year: 2022
Language: English
Pages: 266
City: New York
Cover
Series
Digital Grooming
Copyright
Dedication
Contents
Acknowledgments
1. Introduction
1.1 Why examine digital grooming? A pressing social issue through a necessary discourse lens
1.1.1 Of digital spaces and grooming practices
1.1.2 A discourse lens on digital grooming
1.2 Researching digital grooming discourse: From data selection to researcher wellbeing
1.2.1 In search of—and (not) finding—digital grooming data
1.2.2 A qualitative, identity-foregrounded analysis of digital grooming discourse
1.2.3 Research ethics
1.3 Book structure
2. Digital Grooming: What It Is and How to Research It
2.1 Introduction
2.2 Digital grooming: A working definition
2.3 Digital mediation
2.3.1 Digital sharing
2.3.2 Digital trust
2.3.3 Digital engagement
2.4 Manipulation
2.4.1 Goal-oriention/Speaker interest
2.4.2 Covertness
2.4.3 Power asymmetry
2.4.4 Coercion
2.4.5 Intentionality
2.4.6 Falsity/Insincerity
2.5 Identity construction
2.6 Conclusion
3. Digital Sexual Grooming: Setting the Scene
3.1 Introduction
3.2 Profiling offenders and child targets of digital sexual grooming
3.3 Participation frameworks in digital sexual grooming
3.4 The practice of digital sexual grooming
3.5 Conclusion
4 “You Are Like My Only Friend, Idc If You Are 12”: Digital Sexual Grooming Discourse
4.1 Introduction
4.2 Digital sexual groomers’ self-styling
4.2.1 Sexual expertise
4.2.2 Vulnerability openness
4.2.3 Target avidity
4.3 Digital sexual groomers’ styling of their target
4.4 Digital sexual groomers’ styling of their opponent
4.5 Conclusion
5. Digital Ideological Grooming: Setting the Scene
5.1 Introduction
5.2 Ideology and community-building in digital ideological grooming
5.3 Religious and/or political extremism
5.4 Radical right groups’ digital modus operandi
5.5 Jihadi groups’ digital modus operandi
5.6 Conclusion
6. “Let Them Starve, You Idiots!!! Why Feed VERMIN?”: Digital Ideological Grooming Discourse
6.1 Introduction
6.2 Self-styling in digital ideological grooming
6.2.1 Broad (“Jack-of-all-trades”) expertise
6.2.2 Toxic openness
6.2.3 Impatient avidity
6.3 Styling the target of digital ideological grooming
6.4 Styling the opponent in digital ideological grooming
6.5 Conclusion
7. Digital Commercial Grooming: Setting the Scene
7.1 Introduction
7.2 Crypto-drug markets: More than an eBay for drugs
7.3 The technical structure of crypto-drug markets
7.4 The social structure of crypto-drug markets
7.5 Conclusion
8. “Your DrugBuddy”: Digital Commercial Grooming Discourse
8.1 Introduction
8.2 Continuity and change in Silk Road
8.3 Self-styling in digital commercial grooming
8.3.1 Drug expertise
8.3.2 Resilience openness
8.3.3 Community avidity
8.4 Styling the target in digital commercial grooming
8.5 Styling the opponent in digital commercial grooming
8.6 Conclusion
9. Digital Grooming: Applications to Daily Life
9.1 Introduction
9.2 Digital grooming: Applying a discourse lens
9.2.1 The “digitalness” of digital grooming
9.2.2 A sui generis form of manipulation
9.2.3 An identity-foregrounded approach to digital grooming
9.3 Applying research findings to daily life: A focus on digital grooming and other online harms
9.4 Project DRAGON-S (Developing Resistance Against Grooming Online: Spot and Shield)
9.5 Conclusion
References
Index
