The Truth Perspective: From Triviality to Grooming..

Ibrahim Shaglawi

In a previous article entitled “Digital Triviality.. and the Dilemma of Values,” we discussed how social media platforms have changed the rules of content creation, as attracting attention and turning it into viewing, interaction, and reach increasingly rewards sensationalism more than value and knowledge, thereby weakening public taste and moral immunity.

Today, we continue from the same point, but from a more dangerous angle. The issue is not what young people watch, but how what they watch affects their awareness, and how content can move from attracting attention to the alienation of consciousness, and then to directing behavior.

In Sudan today, where the war revolves around the state, resources, and influence, targeting society is no longer carried out through weapons alone. There is another hidden struggle over awareness, narrative, identity, trust, and the direction of public opinion. In this struggle, the mobile phone can turn from a tool for knowledge and communication into a space for penetrating awareness, when content is exploited for misinformation, polarization, incitement, and exploiting the need for money or fame to direct behavior.

Therefore, protecting the digital space is no longer merely a technical matter, but part of protecting society and the state and safeguarding the resilience of national decision-making.

Digital alienation does not happen suddenly. It often begins with content that attracts attention, then is repeated until it becomes familiar. A position or bias then develops around it, and trust is built with a source or personality, before the influence moves from ideas to behavior. Here, what is known as digital grooming can emerge, when that trust and psychological vulnerability are exploited to gradually push an individual toward a position, relationship, or activity that may harm them or society and the state. Therefore, the dividing line between triviality and grooming is not direct, but an environment that weakens the ability to distinguish and rewards sensationalism makes society more susceptible to alienation and exploitation.

This does not mean that every piece of trivial content is part of a grooming operation, or that every digital influencer works on behalf of a particular party. Such generalization lacks objectivity and turns the issue into an accusation without evidence. However, ignoring the potential for exploitation within the digital space would be a strategic mistake, particularly in a society exhausted by war, where some media, cultural, and educational institutions have retreated from their roles, while digital platforms have become the fastest source of information, interpretation, and influence.

More dangerously, moral alienation may precede crime. When society’s sensitivity to vulgarity, violence, hatred, and fraud declines, and when obtaining money and fame becomes a justification for crossing boundaries, society loses not only its public taste, but also weakens one of its most important internal barriers against criminal behavior. Therefore, protecting the value-based social fabric is not a marginal matter of preaching, but part of community security, because the collapse of moral standards does not automatically produce crime, but it may create a social environment that is more tolerant of it and more susceptible to normalizing it.

Here, the responsibility of the relevant authorities becomes clear. The Ministry of Digital Transformation and Communications must go beyond its role in infrastructure and, through the Cybersecurity Authority, extend its role to spreading digital culture, promoting the safe use of technology, and raising awareness of the risks of misleading content and electronic grooming.

Likewise, the Ministry of Interior is concerned with confronting cybercrimes, blackmail, fraud, exploitation, and everything that transforms digital influence into a crime requiring legal action. As for the Security and Intelligence Service, particularly the Community Security Authority, it has an important role in assessing risks that go beyond individual crime to threaten social cohesion, stability, and national security, while ensuring that this is carried out within the framework of the law and respect for rights and freedoms.

But the government is not alone in this battle. The press is required to regain its role in shaping awareness and exposing misinformation, while universities must produce knowledge about digital alienation and grooming and their effects, in a way that assists decision-makers. The roles of schools, youth centers, religious, cultural, and community platforms also complement one another in building a discourse that understands the language and aspirations of young people, and in using the same platforms to warn against blackmail, hatred, manipulation, and grooming.

The confrontation is therefore not about closing the digital space, but about strengthening it with awareness and social immunity that make it a tool for protecting people, the state, and society.

Thus, the article connects with what preceded it in #The_Truth_Perspective. Triviality drains attention, alienation weakens the independence of awareness, and grooming may turn this weakness into behavior vulnerable to exploitation. In a country waging a war over the state, resources, and influence, protecting the awareness of young people becomes a matter of national security, not merely a cultural issue. The battle is not about closing the digital space, but about strengthening society so that the mobile phone screen and other platforms do not become a gateway for penetrating awareness and destroying values.

May you remain in good health and well-being.

Tuesday, September 15, 2026

Shglawi55@gmail.com