Travis Richard Puckett is facing child grooming and sexual exploitation charges in Cobb County. Investigators allege he repeatedly tried over a five-month span to arrange sex with a teenager in exchange for money.
A warrant cited by WSB-TV says Puckett texted the victim during the alleged grooming period. The station reported that he spent months building a relationship with the teenager before the alleged attempts to pay for sex.
How Predators Target Kids Online
The station's report also described how online information may be used to build trust with a child. It said predators may study a child's social media accounts to learn about their interests and use fake profile pictures of people close to the child's age.
Susan Norris, whose comments were included in the station's reporting, said law enforcement, the Cobb County district attorney's office and local nonprofits work together to combat sex trafficking in the area. She said her organization's teaching on the issue is critical, and she advised parents to talk with their kids about being good cyber citizens and to avoid oversharing personal information online.
Parents Urged to Monitor What Kids Share
The report said parents can discuss online safety with their children and monitor what they post publicly. Rescuing Hope provides education and training to help communities recognize and prevent exploitation, and recently released digital training for law enforcement, according to the station.
Georgia's Grooming Law and the Broader Picture
Georgia lawmakers moved to toughen penalties for this type of conduct earlier this year. House Bill 993, which The Hartwell Sun reported passed unanimously by substitute in the state Senate on March 26, made grooming a minor for sex a felony punishable by one to five years in prison. The bill covers grooming conducted in person or through electronic devices, computers, social media and text messages. It was signed April 24 and took effect July 1.
National data underscores how quickly these cases can develop. The Department of Homeland Security has said online enticement and grooming periods can be extremely short, citing cases in which the period lasted as little as 19 seconds. The National Center for Missing & Exploited Children reported receiving 1.4 million online-enticement reports in 2025, according to its CyberTipline data.
What CyberTipline Reports Show
The National Center for Missing & Exploited Children said online-enticement reports rose 158% from 2024 to 2025. The organization describes this as an increase in reports and cautions that the change was impacted by the 2024 REPORT Act, which expanded requirements for electronic service providers to report online enticement and child sex trafficking.
Cases alleging grooming and exploitation have surfaced elsewhere in the Atlanta area in recent months. A former Atlanta youth minister was accused by prosecutors of grooming and sexually abusing minors over roughly 18 years while serving at churches in Atlanta and Northern Virginia, according to CBS Atlanta. In a separate Cobb County case, a 77-year-old defense attorney faced sexual battery and pandering charges after allegedly soliciting sexual acts from a client, FOX 5 Atlanta reported.
