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On the final day of the 2026 Clergy-Laity Congress, Rev. Dr. Peter J. Spiro presented the workshop “Protecting Children in the Digital Age: Cyberbullying, Online Predators and Trafficking Risks” on behalf of the FREEDOM Ministry of the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America. Fr. Spiro is director of the Archdiocese’s FREEDOM Ministry, the national human trafficking awareness initiative, where he trains clergy and parishes and collaborates with governmental, NGO, and faith-based partners.
Fr. Peter has more than 15 years of service in law enforcement as an auxiliary deputy sheriff, chaplain, and chief chaplain. He currently serves as chief chaplain for the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation (TBI), overseeing chaplains statewide in support of more than 700 personnel. He is also a trainer within TBI’s Human Trafficking Unit and director of the TBI PROTECT program, which equips faith-based organizations to address human trafficking.
Fr. Peter is also founder and director of the ARISTEVI Foundation in Nashville, Tennessee, which provides survivors with recovery, rehabilitation, and long-term support—including educational and vocational support, spiritual care, clothing, salon services, and housing assistance—with plans for a free medical clinic. His Chapel of Saint Barbara has been designated the “Shrine for Human Freedom” by the Holy Eparchial Synod and operates under His Eminence Archbishop Elpidophoros of America. He serves on multiple task forces and advisory councils addressing human trafficking and interpersonal violence.
Drawing on Fr. Peter’s experience presenting across the United States and internationally, the session educated participants on how everyday platforms, including chat features, gaming environments, and social media apps, are used to target, groom, and exploit young users. Participants learned how cyberbullying presents, its lasting psychological and emotional impact on victims, and how to recognize warning signs early. The session also addressed how online predators operate, including grooming and manipulation tactics, and how seemingly harmless interactions can escalate into dangerous situations.
“Our kids don’t go online anymore, they live online,” Fr. Peter said. “It is an ingrained part of life and something we have to confront—the good things that it offers and the bad things as well.”
Key objectives of the session included recognizing online risks, understanding cyberbullying, identifying grooming tactics, recognizing exploitation warning signs, understanding cyber-enabled trafficking, learning prevention strategies, and knowing when to intervene.
Fr. Peter defined cyberbullying as repeated harmful behavior conducted through technology, intended to embarrass, threaten, intimidate, or humiliate. It can take the form of group chat attacks, social media pile-ons, fake profiles, anonymous messaging, shared screenshots, targeted memes, and online impersonation. He noted it is important for parish council members, GOYA advisors, and other community leaders overseeing church-related social media to ensure cyberbullying is not occurring on their own parish pages.
Fr. Peter pointed to a new federal law, the TAKE IT DOWN Act, as a tool to combat this abuse. The act allows victims whose intimate images were shared online without consent—including survivors of trafficking and online sexual exploitation—to request removal of that content, giving them a mechanism that can support healing and recovery.
The impact of cyberbullying can include anxiety, depression, isolation, declining academic performance, sleep disruption, thoughts of self-harm, increased suicide risk, and susceptibility to trafficking.
Fr. Peter shared the story of a young girl trafficked after finding little support at home or in her community and encountering predators online. Having witnessed domestic violence at home, she joined an online chat support group, where another girl claiming to be 12 told her she understood her pain and now lived happily in a home with other girls. The young girl arranged to join her and was picked up to be taken out of state—but the men who arrived told her she would instead be taken to a hotel and forced into prostitution, threatening to burn down her house and kill her family if she refused. She was trafficked for six years. Fr. Spiro noted that trafficking victims are commonly abused dozens of times a day for years and are often malnourished.
Fr. Peter shared this story illustrates common warning signs of online grooming. Predators build a victim’s dependence by offering support, creating secrecy, and cultivating a sense of safety—incrementally, not dramatically—often beginning with a false friendship, shared interests, gaming together, gifts, attention, and validation. This grooming most often occurs on gaming platforms, messaging apps, social media, livestreams, and chat rooms. Fr. Peter named red flags to watch for, including requests for secrecy, use of private apps, frequent compliments and gifts, discussion of family conflict, and requests for photos. Escalation typically involves emotional dependence, guilt, threats of abandonment, gradually introduced sexual topics, and normalization of disturbing language and behavior.
Grooming can also lead to sextortion, in which predators use images, information, or threats to obtain money, additional images, or compliance—for example, threatening to send a victim’s nude photos to everyone they know unless paid. Fr. Peter said this can lead to suicide when children feel they have no way out, and noted that children and individuals with disabilities are frequently targeted for their vulnerabilities.
He also addressed the emerging risk of AI-enabled exploitation, including deepfakes, AI-generated explicit content, fake identities, and AI-assisted grooming, which complicates victims’ and families’ ability to distinguish reality from fabrication.
The presentation included an extended question-and-answer period. One participant asked how, given a culture that is often sexually overt, communities can help prevent young boys from growing into men who engage in grooming. Fr. Peter emphasized restricting digital devices and the responsibility of parents and community leaders to protect children and limit harmful influences, however difficult that may be.
Fr. Peter described the tragedy of trafficking and exploitation as a defilement of the icon of Christ within every person.
“How can you traffic or consume instead of relate to another human being when they have the image of Christ within them?” Fr. Peter asked.
The workshop closed with guidance on building a culture of safety: establishing digital safety rules, keeping devices out of bedrooms, prohibiting secret accounts, reviewing privacy settings, knowing which apps children use, discussing children’s online experiences openly, and ensuring no punishment for reporting concerns. Fr. Peter urged clergy and parishioners to serve as trusted adults offering open communication, healthy boundaries, consistent supervision, and digital literacy. If a child does report an incident, he advised adults to remain calm, avoid blaming the child, preserve evidence, take screenshots, report immediately, and seek support.
Fr. Peter emphasized the importance of shared community responsibility: “It takes two people to make a child, but a city to create a Christian,” he said.
Parents, teachers, clergy, coaches, youth leaders, law enforcement, and mental health professionals all play key roles in protecting children. Fr. Peter directed attendees to additional resources, including the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children (NCMEC), NetSmartz, StopBullying.gov, and Internet Crimes Against Children (ICAC) Task Forces.
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