A United States attorney announced an indictment charging a 20-year-old Cleburne, Texas man with coercion and enticement of a minor to engage in sexual activity and receipt of child sex abuse material.

According to court documents, the accused met a 12-year-old girl online while playing a video game.

This is another case brought as part of Project Safe Childhood, a nationwide initiative launched in May 2006 by the Department of Justice to combat the growing epidemic of child sexual exploitation and abuse.

According to the DOJ press release:

[The accused] communicated and exchanged sexually explicit photos with the victim. [The accused] later drove from Texas to Florida to pick up the child and engage in sexual acts with her. https://www.justice.gov/usao-mdfl/pr/texas-man-indicted-coercion-and-enticement-minor-engage-sexual-activity-and-receipt (Oct. 22, 2024).

Commentary

Sending sexually-explicit images to children is a form of grooming. The images are meant to entice and test the target to determine if the child will engage in physical sex. A positive response from a target about viewing sexual images is a greenlight that the target may engage in acts of sex.

The DOJ press release also exemplifies the length that perpetrators will go to commit sexual abuse. In the above example, the perpetrator drove from Texas to Florida.

The final takeaway is that safe adults need to make certain that children understand the risk involved when they send - and/or willingly receive – nude or sexually-explicit images from online adults.

Other signs of grooming include:

• Touching a child sexually or inappropriately
• Asking for, or demanding, sex from a child
• Sharing nude or sexually explicit images with a child
• Asking/demanding a child provide nude or sexual images
• Watching or recording a child perform sexual acts
• Performing sexual acts in front of a child
• Displaying or watching pornography with or around a child
• Displaying or providing sexual clothing, sex toys, or other intimate items to a child
• Providing alcohol and/or drugs to a child
• Speaking about sex, sexuality, and/or sexual desires around or to a child
• Providing gifts or money to a child without parent/guardian approval
• Spending time alone with a child without parent/guardian approval
• Purposefully secluding yourself with a child in a private space/home away from other adults
• Being alone with a child where other adults cannot view/interact with you or the child
• Privately communicating with a child
• Communicating online with a child without approval from or copying parents/guardians
• Privately communicating false or exploitive information to a child 
• Taking, or recording, images of a child without parent/guardian approval
• Asking a child to download private/encrypted messaging applications
• Threatening a child physically, verbally or emotionally
• Threatening to harm people, pets, or things important to a child
• Threatening to post private information or images of or about a child
• Manipulating or altering images to exploit or harm a child
• Confining or holding a child against the child's will
• Talking negatively about parents/guardians to child