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Grooming a child is befriending a child by building a strong, trusting bond, though the term is most often used negatively to refer to an act of lowering a perceivedly inhibitory attitude of a child regarding sexual behavior with an adult.
Grooming in and of itself is not necessarily harmful, it all depends on the intentions and purposes behind the grooming. In addition to acts which by themselves are legal, sexual grooming may include acts such as showing pornography to the child, perhaps even child pornography. The pornography may be used to arouse the child, or as an example of what the other person desires, to give the child the impression that the depicted acts are normal or common.
One form of grooming is "Internet grooming" or "online grooming", that is, nurturing an Internet friendship, usually by means of online chat, which may later result in "real life" contact. Again, the term is often used in the negative context mentioned above, but there are also many situations online where positive relationships have been forged and built out of such communications. In 2003 MSN Chat was restricted to better protect children from what they called "inappropriate communication".
Sexual grooming in the UK Sexual Offences Act
The Sexual Offences Act 2003, section 15 for the UK except Scotland (and the proposed Protection of Children and Prevention of Sexual Offences (Scotland) Bill) make it an offence for an adult, after having met or communicated with a child on at least two earlier occasions, to meet, or travel to meet, the child with the intention of sexually abusing him or her on that occasion or later.
Thus a crime may be committed even without a meeting actually taking place and without the child even being involved in the meeting (for example, if a police officer has taken over the contact and pretends to be that child).