Luring Offense

This article introduces online sexual solicitation of minors, explains how the resource describes solicitation laws, and outlines two proposed offender types. It also summarizes a 2016 survey study that estimated reported solicitation of adolescents and children and examined perpetrators’ characteristics and interaction outcomes, including sexual outcomes following some initially nonsexual contact.

This resource summarizes research on online behaviors associated with adolescent vulnerability and on teens’ management of social media privacy. It lists behaviors linked in cited research to greater risk of sexual exploitation, then reports survey findings about teens’ profile sharing, privacy settings, network management, and generally positive online experiences.

This resource challenges common assumptions about online luring by summarizing research on solicitation cases involving real minors. It reports that the cited cases generally involved adolescents who often knew the adult’s age and sexual intent, and reviews findings on stranger contact, deception, repeat encounters, violence, and the ages of youth involved.