Here is an interesting article discussing grooming in both senses of the word. As we know we all engage in grooming when we want to achieve some aim.
This article looks at the grooming of children to be good consumers and the grooming of them for sexual ends.
Either way, it appears, harm is the outcome.
I recently ran an event that brought parents together to talk about online safety, and one parent went home and discovered that her teen daughter was being targeted by a groomer. She had the presence of mind to dissect the strategies used, and blogged about it to warn other parents.
It’s harrowing to realise how real this is, and how much we as parents have to be on our guard.