Online grooming — a term used to describe how people use the Internet to gain a child’s trust and eventually harm him or her — has claimed its latest victim in Bengaluru. A 13-year-old boy provided photos and videos of himself and his parents to an online friend who has used them to blackmail the family.
The cyber sleuths attached to the Karnataka Criminal Investigation Department are now trying to trace the person who created a now-defunct account on Facebook under the name Thejal Patel and befriended the boy.
“Most often, we contact the social media platform and explain the gravity of the case. After this, we request for necessary details to track the case. Usually, six months data of the account is sought for. By this we will arrive at a pattern of the suspect’s movements,” said a police officer.
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The police also collect the registered mobile number and email ID. “We then track the service provider and take details about the customer. It is then easy to track down the suspect using mobile tower signals and IP addresses he used to login into his email ID,” said the officer.
Police sources said that with the use of the Internet increasing, the number of children falling prey to online predators would be on the rise. “The parents should monitor the online behaviour of children,” said a senior police officer.