FBI reported 80% spike in online grooming last year: former agent
- Paris Hilton’s memoir is refueling conversations on grooming
- Tracy Walder says the FBI reported a spike in online grooming last year
- She thinks online access is contributing to grooming
(NewsNation) — The release of Paris Hilton’s new memoir is refueling conversations about grooming. In the book, the celebrity detailed that one of her old teachers used to call her almost every night.
Former CIA Special Agent Tracy Walder thinks more stories of grooming are emerging due to online access and the incidents being reported more now. According to Walder, the FBI reported an 80% increase in online grooming activity last year.
“The people that were most affected was the 12- to 15-year-old kind of age group, and that age group is the newest to social media, quite frankly. Really only 4% of the outreach in terms of grooming was really aggressive, so really obvious in nature,” Walder said during an appearance on “NewsNation Prime.” “I think that’s probably the biggest thing leading to this increase or this spike particularly.”
In the video above, Walder discusses her experience with grooming and the warning signs.