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Every day Child Rescue Coalition monitors 30-50 million records linked with child sexual abuse, and reports its findings to law enforcement.  Child predators are trading photos, videos, and documents in decentralized and unregulated file sharing networks and chat rooms.

The amount of Child Sexual Abuse Material (referred to by professionals as “CSAM”) floating around in cyberspace is frightening. But what is in these files? And how do the predators viewing and trading this material learn how to find and hurt our children?

They learn from grooming manuals and they are unfortunately quite legal. The legal definition of child sexual abuse material is photos or videos that depict a child being sexually abused. CSAM doesn’t include the written word, so documents like grooming manuals are not illegal to possess or distribute. The information inside them is very dangerous and it’s being passed around to help people hurt children.

It’s for that reason we decided to release a small part of one of these grooming manuals to help you understand exactly what we are facing. We’ve seen about a dozen of these being traded among child predators over 100,000 times.

 

WHAT IS A GROOMING MANUAL?

A grooming manual is a tool used by dangerous predators to educate themselves about how to harm children while avoiding law enforcement. These manuals are often found in the same online networks where predators trade child sexual abuse material. Within these networks, predators seek to normalize their behavior and justify to each other that it is acceptable to sexually abuse children, even going as far as believing that children enjoy it. This despicable mindset perpetuates the sharing of more child sexual abuse material and allows predators to better strategize on how to prey on kids.

It’s crucial to acknowledge the existence of this dark side of society that may be unsettling for many to accept. By raising awareness and educating the public, we can help safeguard children from these harmful predators and ensure that parents are equipped to take appropriate measures in protecting their children.

We want parents and educators to understand that sexual abuse most often is committed by predators who are already in your circle of trust and are not only grooming children, but are grooming parents for their trust, and time alone with their children.

INSIDE A GROOMING MANUAL

Please note that what we are about to show you is graphic in nature. These words are coming from the predator manual that we track,  and CRC strongly opposes the views in this manual.

This is the cover image of one of the documents we’ve discovered which demonstrates clear intent, to teach predators how to find kids, and sexually abuse them.

And here is a small portion of the main index.

In this particular grooming manual, this predator shares the most common places to pick up children. This writer also explicitly details the type of communities and kids to target and ways to do so. 

It’s frightening to think there are wicked people in the world that not only practice sexual abuse with children under the guise of “child love”, but they are also writing manuals to instruct others to do the same to innocent victims as young as three years old. 

Our CRC Technology tracks people trading these types of documents and Child Rescue Coalition has lead to the arrest of over 16,000 child predators.  We have trained law enforcement partners in 106 countries to continue to find and apprehend these individuals, and have analyzed over 21 billion data points related to the sexual abuse of children.

The sad statistic is that up to 85% of individuals who view child sexual abuse material are already hands-on abusers and we don’t want them getting their hands on materials that will teach them how to do even more damage. 

WHAT CAN PARENTS DO TO KEEP KIDS SAFE?

We want parents to start to think about where their children are, and who they are with. Can you trust them? Are the schools or daycare centers, where your children spend the most time, screening their employees properly? Beyond that, we want them to take practical steps to protect their kids. 

Did you know our technology is available for corporations? 

 9 TIPS TO KEEP CHILDREN SAFE ONLINE

1. Do not allow children to have their phones, laptops, or tablets in their bedrooms. A connection to the internet not only gives your child access to adult content, but also allows others to contact your children through video game chats, social media apps, and chat rooms. 

2. Don’t allow your children to be alone with other adults. Most sexual abuse of children takes place when the abuser already knows the child and they may already be in your circle of trust.

3. Always check your children’s devices, search history, what they are posting, as well as their emails, texts and social media direct messages. If it’s too much work and parents don’t have time, then limit the apps your children have for you to manage. Bill Wiltse, President of CRC says, “Don’t be a spectator parent and presume you know what your kids are doing online. Does your child’s perceived right to privacy supersede their safety? It is 100% your right to monitor your children’s devices.”

4. Have the talk with your children about internet safety and online predators, and let them know that it’s not just stranger danger. These courageous conversations early will instill smart and safe online habits.

5. Always have social media accounts turned to private and turn off location tracking.

6. Use an app like Bark to manage your young children’s devices.

7. Avoid using predator attracting hashtags, even if the social media accounts are private.

8. Be on the lookout for signs your child might be a target of a predator. (Read those here.)

9. Sign a contract with your kids so they understand the rules of the online road.

You can read all of our safety tips here on our Education page.

The digital world is a scary one for parents to be navigating today, but if we keep talking about how to stay safe, we can and will continue to find and prosecute the criminals who want to harm children.

If you would like to support us on our mission to protect the innocent and continue to give our CRC Technology for free to law enforcement officials across the globe, please donate now. One $25 donation is enough to protect one child. So far, we’ve helped prevent the abuse of over 750,000 children, will you help us keep your child safe?