(Developing Resistance Against Grooming ONline) Infinity
Recent policy developments, media attention, and government strategies have improved public awareness of neurodivergence, increasing the visibility of conditions such as autism and ADHD. Limited research evidence suggests that children with neurodivergent (ND) profiles experience intersecting and heightened vulnerabilities to online sexual risk and are consistently over-represented in online child sexual exploitation and abuse (OCSEA) case data yet remain under-served by prevention and safeguarding interventions (see e.g. Stone et al. 2025 for an overview of relevant literature). DRAGON Infinity (∞) addresses this critical gap by co-producing anti-OCSEA resources focused on online grooming with families of ND children.
Our research identifies grooming as a distinct form of communicative manipulation. We align to the needs-led approach to neurodivergence spearheaded by the Neurodivergence Improvement Programme in Wales, which recognises that people do not fit neatly into diagnostic categories and often experience overlapping profiles. The spectrum of overlapping ND conditions may have specific characteristics, but they share common challenges in executive functioning, auditory processing of information, literal language/language nuance and frequently sensory processing.
Through INCLUDE+ Feasibility funding, we will establish a Parent Advisory Group (PAG) to embed lived experience at the core of safeguarding innovation, aligning with INCLUDE+’s principle that relationships themselves are the intervention. We will hold co-discovery workshops to understand how the communicative nature of online grooming intersects with ND lived experiences to explore the feasibility and needs for adaptation of resources from our CPD-accredited child safeguarding training platform (with a focus on OCSEA) . This will allow us to scope and prototype digital, interactive/multimedia outputs with parents and their children with ND profiles integrating relational expertise into scalable, equitable prevention tools grounded in real-world protective needs.
Team
DRAGON Team
Nuria Lorenzo-Dus – Professor of Linguistics and Director of Project DRAGON, Swansea University.
Keighley Perkins – Researcher in Linguistics with responsibility for DRAGON outreach and engagement, Swansea University
Leonie Themelidis – Project Training Lead for DRAGON, Swansea University
Ms Laura Smith – Digital Design and UX Lead, Swansea University
Collaborators
Joe Higgins – Head of Production, Sleeping Giant
Echo Games CIC
Dr Ruth Mullineux-Morgan – Director, SGWRS Consulting
Ceri Reed – Founder, Parents’ Voices in Wales CIC
Advisory expertise
Dr Ben Ewart-Dean – Family Support Neurodivergence Development Officer, National Neurodivergence Team, Welsh Government
Dr Sangeet Bhullar – Founder, WISE KIDS