this was a new term for me when I first heard about "grooming" gangs. upon researching the term, there is not much on the internet - perhaps the internet is or was scrubbed of the term. "grooming" has been for "grooming" someone to take a good job, providing help for someone's improvement. in the current context of the article, grooming gangs applies to groups of people who purposely go after pre-teen and teenagers who, based upon their social media posts, appear to be lonely. grooming gangs pretend to provide support in order to have the individual meet up with them.