Date of Conferral

7-23-2026

Date of Award

July 2026

Degree

Ph.D.

School

Health and Human Services

Advisor

Barbara Benoliel

Abstract

Short-form video platforms such as TikTok and Instagram Reels increasingly circulate dating and lifestyle advice that may normalize coercive relational scripts. A key challenge for preventing technology-facilitated child sexual exploitation is that early grooming precursors can be communicated through audiovisual design choices, such as tone, pacing, setting, and editing, that make manipulative narratives appear benign. The purpose of this qualitative multimedia content analysis was to identify recurring observable patterns that provide a form of symbolic modeling, through which relational and boundary-shaping cues associated with early-stage sexualized grooming are framed as ordinary dating or lifestyle advice in public TikTok and Instagram short-form posts. Guided by Bandura’s social cognitive theory of mass communication, a purposive sample of 100 archival public posts, 50 per platform, was coded in MAXQDA using a structured observation protocol for visual, audio, and on-screen text features. Analysis reduced 289 codes to a 10-category cross-platform taxonomy of observable masking characteristics, interpreted through four themes. Masking operated primarily through presentation: every post simulated interpersonal closeness within ordinary platform conventions, while explicit relational and boundary cues were rare, appearing in 19 of 100 posts and always within those conventions. No category was platform specific. Findings may inform prevention education and future detection research by helping youth, caregivers, and practitioners recognize how an appealing surface can conceal boundary-shaping content, supporting positive social change through earlier recognition of disguised manipulation.

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