I'm Emily Campaniel, and this is the Fox True Crime podcast.

Child sexual abuse is an insidious threat that plagues the world in which we live today.

By exploiting familial trust, predators can gain access to children and infiltrate safe spaces,

allowing them opportunities to groom their victims.

The chilling reality is that you can't spot a predator through their looks or through their dress.

It's hard to identify the vulnerability of a potential victim. It's only with a perceptive eye and a keen understanding that alarming behavior and red flags can be detected.

Any child can become a target, but with the right tools, parents and family members can take the necessary

steps to ensure that their child does not become a victim. Anna Sonoda is a licensed clinical

social worker who is working to educate adults about the dangers and prevalence of grooming,

and to encourage them to protect their children by detecting and rejecting the efforts of child predators.

In her new book, Duck Duck Groom, Anna combines her experience as a licensed clinical social worker

with her experience as a parent in order to give parents the resources they need

to better understand deceitful and dangerous patterns.

Today, she joins me for an in-depth conversation about her research

and how we can spot key warning signs to create a safer environment for our children.

Anna, tell me a little bit about your background.

What led you to write this book?

So, Emily, I'm a licensed clinical social worker,

which means that I have my master's degree in social work. And when I was training to get my

master's, I was placed on a practicum site of my choosing. And some of the options I had were

working with children or working with families. And one of the options and had were working with children or working with families.

And one of the options and the option that I chose was working in a cognitive behavioral therapy placement with convicted sex offenders.

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