“im embarrassed 2 say lol”: The functions of lol in online groomer-decoy interactions

The present study examines a sample of the grooming chat-logs provided by the Perverted Justice Foundation (PJF) using a digital Conversation Analysis (CA) approach. I argue that many previous studies on online grooming discourse based on the PJF dataset have routinely overlooked key contextual and interactional features of these conversations. This is mainly due to the tendency to focus only on the groomers' utterances, while sytematically ignoring the decoys' contributions. In this study I demonstrate how by including both the groomers' and decoys’ utterances it is possible to provide a more comprehensive understanding of groomer-decoy dynamics. By focusing specifically on the use of the discourse marker lol (laughing out loud), this study reveals that the decoys are active in shaping the entire interaction with the groomers, and that their use of lol plays a significant role in managing the conversation. Recent years have seen an increase in the prevalence of vigilante so-called ‘pedo-hunter’ groups and their use of decoys to catch offenders worldwide. This study serves as a proof of concept, underscoring the relevance of examining the PJF data by applying microanalytic principles offered by CA. The article thus advocates for future sequential analyses of authentic grooming data to further advance our understanding of digital sexual offenses. • Decoys serve an active role in shaping the interactions in the PJF chat-log data. • The discourse marker lol supports decoys' avoidance strategies. • Decoys balance their double-role as decoy and child through the use of lol. • Digital CA is a promising methodology for researching online grooming.