Term Grooming

Currently the term grooming is being misused to claim that sex education, Disney movies and/or books with sexual content are grooming children to facilitate sexual abuse.

This IS NOT TRUE.

Grooming is a term used when discussing sex offenders’ behaviors.

Grooming is less a clinical term, and more used by lay people as it does not have a clear cut definition. It is a term used to describe a pattern of behaviors that are inappropriate and meant to increase the likelihood of a child being susceptible to the perpetrator’s influence and increases the chances of the child keeping the interactions secret.

These claims are intentionally misusing the concept of grooming to link sex education or Disney movies with child sexual abuse.

This carries the risk of making it more difficult to identify actual manipulative behaviors meant to groom children.

Calling everything one disapproves of grooming trivializes the actual experiences of child sexual abuse victims.

Source: Psychology Today