Mid Sweden University

Grooming is an internet based crime that affects children over the world, and during the covid-19 pandemic, children have been disproportionately affected and in specific risk for becoming targeted. While Sweden's covid-19 strategy differs from other countries in Europe and the rest of the world, since there has not been a national “lock-down”, however, schools have temporarily implemented distance. This study uses a qualitative approach to examine the effect of the covid-19 pandemic on grooming, where semi-structured interviews were conducted with people working as police officers and social services workers. The material collected from the interviews was analyzed using the routine activity theory and the cyber-lifestyle routine activity theory. The study found that grooming did not appear to increase in Sweden due to the covid-19 pandemic, although there was a concern about it when the pandemic began. It also found that digital resilience is required to protect vulnerable children when societal crises arise.