My Parents Expectations Were Overwhelming: Online Dating Romance Scams Targeting Minors in Iran Through Exploitation of Parental Pressure

2026-01-22

AI Summary

This study examines the unique vulnerabilities of Iranian minors to online romance fraud, shaped by cultural norms and familial expectations. Drawing on semi-structured in-depth interviews with 16 underage victims and situated within the context of local digital platform usage, the research employs a socio-technical analysis to uncover how perpetrators exploit indigenous instant messaging applications, emotional neglect within families, and pressures surrounding marriage and academic performance to coerce minors into providing financial resources and sexual services. The work advances the first analytical framework integrating cultural context and familial stressors into the study of adolescent online romance fraud, revealing distinct mechanisms of technology-mediated harm in non-Western settings and underscoring the critical importance of cultural sensitivity in designing effective prevention and intervention strategies.

Technology Category

• Application Domains: Humanities & Computational Social Science
• Data Mining & Knowledge Management: Knowledge Acquisition from the Web
• Cognitive Modeling & Cognitive Systems: Social Cognition And Interaction

Application Category

• Responsible Web: Social and technical mechanisms of refusal for web technologies and applications
• Web Mining and Content Analysis: Web data quality in the era of algorithmically-generated content
• Social Networks and Social Media: Socio-technical web-based systems

Abstract

Minors are at risk of myriad harms online, yet online dating romance scams are seldom considered one of them. While research of romance scams in Western countries finds victims to predominantly be middle-age, it is unknown if minors in geographic regions with cultural norms around teenage marriage are uniquely susceptible to online dating romance scams. We present an interview study with 16 victims of online dating romance scams in Iran who were minors when scammed. Findings show that, with westernized dating apps banned in Iran, scammers find teenage victims through messaging platforms tethered to local neighborhoods, offering relief for parental pressures around finding a marital partner and academic performance. Using threats, lies, and exploitation of emotional attachment lacking from their families, scammers pressured minors into financial and sexual favors. The study demonstrates how local cultural context should be foregrounded in future research on, and solutions for, technology-mediated harm against minors. Content Warning: This paper discusses sexual abuse.

Problem

• online dating romance scams
• minors
• parental pressure
• cultural context
• technology-mediated harm

Innovation

• online dating romance scams
• minors
• cultural context
• parental pressure
• technology-mediated harm