According to the Fresno County Sheriff's Office, a 26-year-old after-school tutor at a California high school was arrested on allegations that he had an online group chat to engage in grooming and child sexual abuse.

The accused had access to students via his work with an outside company that contracted with the school district for tutoring services. He has allegedly been placed on leave since his arrest.

An investigation began after information was received that the tutor was allegedly communicating with children in an online Discord group chat. He is accused of sending messages to groom children and exchange sexually-explicit materials.

The sheriff's office investigating the case stated that the accused allegedly made efforts to meet in person with at least one of the children.

Source: https://abc30.com/post/tutor-worked-fresno-high-school-arrested-sexual-harassment-deputies-say/19509392/; https://www.yourcentralvalley.com/news/crime/fresno-high-school-tutor-arrest/

Commentary

A basic child protection concept is that no one adult should be alone with a child in a program setting. Some refer to this as "a rule of two", and scouting organizations refer to it as "two-deep leadership". This means no fewer than two adults should be present around a child or children at all times.

The purpose is to decrease the likelihood that unsafe adults are able to have isolated access to children. By requiring two or more adults, accountability and visibility are increased, and the risk of abuse incidents is reduced.

Although this approach to child protection has been well-established as to physical spaces, digital spaces present different challenges.

Child-centered organizations that prohibit a singular adult to be alone with children in a car, an office, or other physical space routinely permit a single adult to have private, one-on-one digital conversations with a child or children.

Safe adults should not generally be in contact with children via digital spaces. Digital spaces can include emails, text messages, social media messages, chat rooms, messaging on online gaming platforms, and more.

When required, email or text messages between, for example, a program and the participant, must include a second, trusted adult. And, monitoring of all communications to ensure they remain child safe would occur.

Helping protect children participating in programs includes:

· Requiring a second, trusted adult on every communication between an adult and a child, including text message threads, emails, calls, or any other digital space

· Prohibiting adults in your organization from following, friending, or directly messaging children on social media or gaming accounts

· Routing all required digital communication through organization-controlled platforms and copy a secondary safe adult by default

· Including the requirement for a second adult in digital communications in all staff, volunteer, and contractor codes of conduct

· Audit all communications periodically to ensure the child protection behaviors are being adhered to