The article below is an English translation of an article originally published by the investigative journalism consortium Latin American Center for Investigative Journalism (El CLIP). It is part of the “Innocence at Risk (Inocencia en Juego)” project, a collaboration between Tech Policy Press, Professor Lara Putnam, and El CLIP, which includes a series of independent reports coordinated by El CLIP and published in El CLIP, Chequeado, Crónica Uno, El Espectador, and Factchequeado.

In Argentina, the main platforms used are TikTok, Instagram, and online games. The City of Buenos Aires’ Public Prosecutor’s Office investigates between 80 and 100 concurrent grooming cases in the city. The country recorded 340 convictions for this crime between 2016 and 2022, but according to specialists, the current law is “deficient and symbolic.”

Argentina has a law named after a 12-year-old girl: Micaela Ortega. A girl who was deceived on Facebook: she spent four months chatting with someone she assumed was another friend of the same age as her, but who, unlike her, was allowed by her parents to go out dancing and miss school.

On April 23rd, 2016, Jonathan Luna, the 26-year-old man who was behind that fake profile, took Micaela to a vacant lot just outside of Bahía Blanca (a city in the Province of Buenos Aires) and killed her. During the trial, other girls who had also been lured by Luna through social media also gave their testimonies.

What Luna did to lure Micaela was grooming: the process in which an adult establishes a relationship with a girl, boy, or teenager through the use of the internet or other digital technologies, with the aim of sexually exploiting or abusing them.

This case turned into the first conviction for grooming followed by death in the country and led to Law 27.590, which seeks to protect children and teenagers from online grooming.

“Jonathan Luna was only part of Micaela’s life for 60 days, her family thought she was safe at home, but her life ended in the worst possible way, and it all began with a click on the ‘accept friend request’ button,” says Emiliano Zárate, criminal investigation specialist, in his thesis “Criminal Analysis of Online Sexual Abuse of Boys, Girls, and Teenagers.”

“Innocence at Risk,” a journalistic investigation coordinated by the Latin American Center for Investigative Journalism (CLIP), in which Chequeado and four other Latin American and US media outlets participated, found that these and other similar dynamics continue to happen on Facebook groups which are still online without any kind of moderation oversight.

This investigation analyzed thousands of posts on Facebook that circulate in groups aimed at preteens in Latin America: fan groups dedicated to musicians such as Peso Pluma, a Mexican singer; Shakira and Karol G, Colombian singers; and BTS, one of the most famous K-Pop bands.

The investigation found, through a digital query done with CrowdTangle—a tool that allowed researchers to analyze public posts on Facebook, but which the company shut down—thousands of posts that replicated the same criteria: people who, via profiles that claimed to be underage, asked questions or published messaged that sought to lure boys, girls, and teenagers into sexual exploitation or abuse.

From Facebook to Instagram, Tiktok, and Online Gaming: How Groomers Lure Their Victims in Argentina

Currently, grooming cases in Argentina are no longer originating most often on Facebook, but rather on other social media.

According to a report published in 2024 by the Grooming LATAM network, which included about 17,000 anonymous surveys of boys, girls, and teenagers between the ages of nine and 17, Facebook is barely the sixth most used platform by the teens and pre-teens surveyed (behind WhatsApp, TikTok, Instagram, the online game Roblox, and YouTube).

The study shows that 55 out of every 100 Argentinian minors don’t know what grooming is, although this number is substantially better than the regional average in Latin America, where 75 out of every 100 of those surveyed are unaware of the term.

The methods for luring minors change every year. Sometimes they are singled out on TikTok, after which they contact them through WhatsApp. The same thing happens on Instagram: The groomers begin a chat with the boys, girls, or teenagers where they befriend them and create a trusted space.

In 2024, in some countries, Meta launched special Instagram accounts for teenagers (between the ages of 13 and 18) over which their parents can have more control, as well as a program that uses Artificial Intelligence to determine if someone younger than 13 is trying to open an account.

In response to questions from this journalistic collaboration, a Meta spokesperson confirmed that “people under 13 are not allowed on Facebook” and added that Meta “will delete their account if they can’t prove they’re 13 or over.” Meta also said that Instagram teenager accounts began to be implemented on February 11 in some Latin American countries “including Argentina, Brazil, and Mexico.”

Data compiled for this investigation show that, at least up to 2024, it was very easy to find people claiming to be under 13 interacting on Facebook: Our digital investigation found hundreds of users saying they were as young as nine.

As Daniela Dupuy, a criminal prosecutor from the City of Buenos Aires’ Public Prosecutor’s Office specializing in online crimes, explained to this journalistic alliance in an interview, these people’s profiles vary widely, although it is very common for them to be part of the minor’s closest circle, ranging “from a school teacher to a pediatrician, or even a family member, but mainly these are people who work in close contact with minors.”

In the “Innocence at Risk” database there are very few users from Argentina, a country where specialists say that the role of Facebook is not as predominant as other platforms’. While it is true that some years ago Facebook was one of the main social media networks, today this has changed.

“Gradually, Omegle, Instagram, TikTok, Twitter, among others, took over. This ‘moving’ corresponded, on the one hand, to the arrival of adults to the previous spaces, something that motivated young people to look for alternatives that allowed them to have more privacy. And, on the other hand, to new apps offering various relevant elements: self-deleting messages, a greater focus on graphic content, a lesser focus on text, just to name a few. Of the 354 cases initiated in 2024, only in two could we confirm the use of Facebook,” explained to this alliance the Digital Violence team from the nation’s Ministry of Justice in an interview.

How are Grooming Cases Investigated in Argentina?

One of the main avenues for investigating in the last 10 years has been the City of Buenos Aires’ Public Prosecutors Office’s 24/7 network. This network has contact points in all of the country’s provinces and responds to cases reported by the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC), a US NGO.

By US Congress mandate, NCMEC has the authority to receive all reports made by tech companies relating to sexual violence and the violation of boys’, girls’, and teenagers’ rights, and to then forward them to the corresponding countries so they can be investigated.

In Argentina, grooming cases are investigated by special prosecutors. Dupuy, the criminal prosecutor specializing in online crimes from the City of Buenos Aires’ Public Prosecutor’s Office, describes how offenders contact minors through TikTok or Instagram to then move the conversation to WhatsApp.

“They start chatting with girls, boys, and teenagers, befriend them, and create a space with a lot of trust,” the prosecutor said to this alliance in an interview. She also pointed out that “between 80 and 100 cases” are being investigated in the City of Buenos Aires at the same time.

The Digital Violence team of the country’s Ministry of Justice agrees with this analysis: “Public groups and chats are used to obtain new contacts with whom then they will try to start some sort of conversation. But the groomer will always seek more privacy for chatting, which is why they prefer contacting people through WhatsApp or social media messengers.”

What are the Laws in Argentina on Grooming?

Argentina is one of the few countries in the region that has criminalized online sexual exploitation as a distinct crime. Since December 2013, the Penal Code established that grooming is a crime that can carry a sentence from six months to four years.

Dupuy warns that many of these cases result in more serious crimes. “They don’t simply stay as grooming, but sometimes we can determine that photos or videos that the groomer received were then distributed on international child exploitation networks. And oftentimes, we can also determine that the minor was sexually abused,” said Dupuy.

In July, 2022, Argentina issued regulations under the Micaela Ortega law (Law # 27.590), which meant, among other things, the creation of an Observatory of the National Program for the Prevention and the Awareness of Grooming, functioning under the Ministry for Social Development.

Although the law exists, the legal situation in the country faces serious challenges. “The ‘anti-grooming’ law is deficient and symbolic,” Hernán Navarro, founder of Grooming Argentina, told this alliance. Navarro also warned that Rule 26904, approved in 2013, “does not manage to protect the legal interest that is the sexual integrity of girls, boys, and teenagers online.” Navarro remarked that, because of the pandemic, every law in the country relating to digital issues has become obsolete, especially in the era of Artificial Intelligence.

How Many Convictions for Grooming Have There Been in Argentina?

According to an analysis of databases from the National Recidivism Registry in the country, which forms part of the Ministry of Justice, between 2016 and 2022 (the latest available update), there were 340 convictions for grooming in Argentina.

Of the cases for which there is data on the type of conviction (between 2016 and 2018), 63 were for probation, and only 12 were for prison sentences, which reinforces the worry specialists have about the inadequacy of the current law.

Grooming convictions show sustained growth and a significant territorial expansion. In 2016, only Entre Ríos and Mendoza had any convictions. In 2017, eight more jurisdictions joined them, including the Province and the City of Buenos Aires. The Province of Buenos Aires has shown a constant increase: it went from seven cases in 2017 to 37 cases in 2022.

More recently, in 2022, Catamarca, Corrientes, San Juan, and Santa Cruz also had convictions. In total, 21 jurisdictions have already convicted someone for grooming, although with stark contrasts in quantity: while the Province of Buenos Aires has accumulated 128 convictions, other provinces, such as Santiago del Estero, Misiones, and Corrientes, only have one each.

Innocence at Risk is a journalistic investigation that reveals the risks of online sexual abuse faced by minors in Latin America on Facebook and other social networks. Led by the Centro Latinoamericano de Investigación Periodística (CLIP), in alliance with Chequeado (Argentina), Crónica Uno (Venezuela), El Espectador (Colombia), Factchequeado and Tech Policy Press (United States).