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A corpus-assisted discourse analysis of children’s and groomers’ talk in online grooming interactions

Craig Evans, Nuria Lorenzo-Dus Orcid Logo

Applied Corpus Linguistics, Volume: 5, Issue: 3, Start page: 100147

Swansea University Author: Nuria Lorenzo-Dus Orcid Logo

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DOI (Published version): 10.1016/j.acorp.2025.100147

Abstract

Harmful communication may not always be recognisable as such, especially when it is manipulative and deceptive and appears to be indistinguishable from innocuous communication. This is the case with online child sexual grooming, where talk from interactions between groomers and children may resemble...

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Published in: Applied Corpus Linguistics
ISSN: 2666-7991 2666-7991
Published: Elsevier BV 2025
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URI: https://cronfa.swan.ac.uk/Record/cronfa70227
first_indexed 2025-08-26T11:47:43Z
last_indexed 2025-10-14T10:05:29Z
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spelling 2025-10-13T10:11:35.3097906 v2 70227 2025-08-26 A corpus-assisted discourse analysis of children’s and groomers’ talk in online grooming interactions fac9246a2aa3ba738f8b431e20e45a64 0000-0002-6211-7939 Nuria Lorenzo-Dus Nuria Lorenzo-Dus true false 2025-08-26 CACS Harmful communication may not always be recognisable as such, especially when it is manipulative and deceptive and appears to be indistinguishable from innocuous communication. This is the case with online child sexual grooming, where talk from interactions between groomers and children may resemble that seen between friends or consenting adults chatting. However, recognising that online grooming may be taking place is not simply a matter of spotting tell-tale words or phrases. It requires engaging with ways that online grooming is discursive: involving groomers and children using language to perform particular functions as they pursue different goals through a dynamic exchange. We address this need in this study by providing the first ever complete account of online grooming discourse, one that identifies features not only of groomers’ talk but also of children’s, using collocates of the most frequent content words in a corpus of each. Comparing findings between the two highlights distinctiveness that helps make online grooming communication more identifiable. It also reveals strong similarity, perhaps reflecting groomers’ efforts to minimise perpetrator/victim contrast for deception purposes. An advantage of using a corpus-assisted discourse studies approach, as found in our study, is that it can uncover subtle, non-obvious patterns that may serve as indicators of online grooming despite such deception. Journal Article Applied Corpus Linguistics 5 3 100147 Elsevier BV 2666-7991 2666-7991 CADS; online grooming; OCSAE; discourse; aboutness; children’s online communication; manipulation discourse 1 12 2025 2025-12-01 10.1016/j.acorp.2025.100147 COLLEGE NANME Culture and Communications School COLLEGE CODE CACS Swansea University SU Library paid the OA fee (TA Institutional Deal) The research for this study has been supported by End Violence, Tech Coalition, and Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation (MICN/AEIO/10.13039/501100011033). 2025-10-13T10:11:35.3097906 2025-08-26T12:43:54.4440077 Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences School of Culture and Communication - English Language, Tesol, Applied Linguistics Craig Evans 1 Nuria Lorenzo-Dus 0000-0002-6211-7939 2 70227__35319__46e37b6a8da2422fad705d7eb2ab29ed.pdf 70227.VoR.pdf 2025-10-13T10:08:38.6302415 Output 816217 application/pdf Version of Record true © 2025 The Author(s). This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license. true eng http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/
title A corpus-assisted discourse analysis of children’s and groomers’ talk in online grooming interactions
spellingShingle A corpus-assisted discourse analysis of children’s and groomers’ talk in online grooming interactions
Nuria Lorenzo-Dus
title_short A corpus-assisted discourse analysis of children’s and groomers’ talk in online grooming interactions
title_full A corpus-assisted discourse analysis of children’s and groomers’ talk in online grooming interactions
title_fullStr A corpus-assisted discourse analysis of children’s and groomers’ talk in online grooming interactions
title_full_unstemmed A corpus-assisted discourse analysis of children’s and groomers’ talk in online grooming interactions
title_sort A corpus-assisted discourse analysis of children’s and groomers’ talk in online grooming interactions
author_id_str_mv fac9246a2aa3ba738f8b431e20e45a64
author_id_fullname_str_mv fac9246a2aa3ba738f8b431e20e45a64_***_Nuria Lorenzo-Dus
author Nuria Lorenzo-Dus
author2 Craig Evans
Nuria Lorenzo-Dus
format Journal article
container_title Applied Corpus Linguistics
container_volume 5
container_issue 3
container_start_page 100147
publishDate 2025
institution Swansea University
issn 2666-7991
2666-7991
doi_str_mv 10.1016/j.acorp.2025.100147
publisher Elsevier BV
college_str Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences
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hierarchy_top_id facultyofhumanitiesandsocialsciences
hierarchy_top_title Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences
hierarchy_parent_id facultyofhumanitiesandsocialsciences
hierarchy_parent_title Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences
department_str School of Culture and Communication - English Language, Tesol, Applied Linguistics{{{_:::_}}}Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences{{{_:::_}}}School of Culture and Communication - English Language, Tesol, Applied Linguistics
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description Harmful communication may not always be recognisable as such, especially when it is manipulative and deceptive and appears to be indistinguishable from innocuous communication. This is the case with online child sexual grooming, where talk from interactions between groomers and children may resemble that seen between friends or consenting adults chatting. However, recognising that online grooming may be taking place is not simply a matter of spotting tell-tale words or phrases. It requires engaging with ways that online grooming is discursive: involving groomers and children using language to perform particular functions as they pursue different goals through a dynamic exchange. We address this need in this study by providing the first ever complete account of online grooming discourse, one that identifies features not only of groomers’ talk but also of children’s, using collocates of the most frequent content words in a corpus of each. Comparing findings between the two highlights distinctiveness that helps make online grooming communication more identifiable. It also reveals strong similarity, perhaps reflecting groomers’ efforts to minimise perpetrator/victim contrast for deception purposes. An advantage of using a corpus-assisted discourse studies approach, as found in our study, is that it can uncover subtle, non-obvious patterns that may serve as indicators of online grooming despite such deception.
published_date 2025-12-01T05:26:05Z
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score 11.090009

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