"On free dating sites, at least 10% of new accounts are from scammers, says Marketdata Enterprise, Inc.
Catfish, anyone?"
According to Merriam Webster's dictionary, the term "catfish" means a person who sets up a false personal profile on a social networking site for fraudulent or deceptive purposes. This type of trickery can occur to anyone who has a social media profile, including websites such as Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, any email site, and of course, dating sites. Commonly, a catfisher will create a fake profile to capture the attention of the their victim, whether it be through a friendship or romantic relationship. In these fake relationships, it is tempting to stretch the actual truth or to only show the side of yourself that you think is best for the world to see. The truth is that most of us do this from time to time. But the scary thing with social media is that you can be anything; you can create any image of yourself that you want the world to see. And when this "profile" isn't the real you, you are free to say everything and anything with no worry that your will will trace back to the real you.
Because the term "catfish" is so new to our society, there isn't a law regarding consequences for proving an individual as a victim to this threat. But according to HG.org on legal resources, there are other already existing related laws that provide protection from these online perpetrators:
Although it may be difficult to prove, injury to the person involved is what crosses the line when it comes to catfishing. One method of injury includes intentional inflection of emotional stress.
"Intentional Infliction of Emotional Distress claims are successful when the victim can prove that the defendant’s conduct is extreme and outrageous and that conduct resulted in severe emotional distress in the victim".
If the victim can demonstrate psychological damage from the conduct of the catfisher, then they may be legally protected from this threat. Another means of justice could be misappropriation of likeness:
"Misappropriation of Likeness requires showing that the perpetrator used a protected attribute of another individual in an exploitative manner without the consent of the person to whom the attribute belonged".
This is a misrepresentation of an individual, such as using photos of someone else and claiming them as their own. There are a few other related claims an individual can make depending on the specific situation. These include harassment, stalking and defamation.Thankfully, I found many resources for teaching the dangers of catfishing to my future students. One stood out above the rest, and I think I could use this in a high school health class. This presentation has warning signs, popular examples, statistics, and ways to keep your identity safe while using social media. Here is a link to the presentation I would use when teaching the dangers of social media, and methods of being safe while online.
Resources:
Can I Sue For Being Catfished. (2016). Retrieved October 12, 2016, from https://www.hg.org/article.asp?id=33850
Catfish. (n.d.). Retrieved October 12, 2016, from http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/catfish
Catfishing: Pretending to be Someone Else Online. (n.d.). Retrieved October 12, 2016, from http://us.reachout.com/facts/factsheet/catfish-pretending-to-be-someone-else-online
Sutton, R. (2014). 16 Scary Statistics of Online Dating. Retrieved October 12, 2016, from https://www.phactual.com/16-scary-statistics-of-online-dating/
Warning Sign of a Catfish Online. (n.d.). Retrieved October 12, 2016, from http://visual.ly/warning-sign-catfish-online
I find this topic very interesting and watch the show "Catfish" sometimes. Have you ever heard of that show? I really like how you gave a lot of visuals to show what catfishing can look like and how to spot it, I think this is essential for students to know about because young students can be naive and unaware of the dangers of the Internet. It seems that not talking to strangers, now needs to be applied to the online world as well not just the physical world. I was wondering if you have ever personally experienced or known someone who has experienced catfishing to feel the affects? Also, do you know if there are certain social media sites that are more prone to catfishing than others?
ReplyDeleteI actually love the show. It kinda scares me how easily it is to trick someone into falling in love with someone you don't know. But now that I say it out loud, isn't that terrible?? We are exposing these personal stories for the world to see, and I guess in a way it's kind of a warning for viewers of the show. I've never known anyone to be catfished, but I do know people who have found true love from meeting someone online. Where is the line drawn? Sometimes it's hard to tell! Facebook seems to be a common website used. But there are so many other popular sites too, like Instagram and Tinder. What are your experiences with catfishing, if any?
DeleteThis topic, although I'v never known the actual term "catfishing", has always had me worried about internet. The fact that people can change anything about themselves behind the internet is scary. As a middle schooler I remember our technology class had to play this game where a 11 year old girl was kidnapped after having an online conversation and planning a meeting with someone she thought "liked." He ended up being a mid 40 year old man and playing this game and watching movies like this always has made me more conscious of people on the internet. I would always be worried when my roommate went on dates with people from tinder too, made her keep her phone on and text me every so many minutes. Have you had friends who have used tinder to meet people too? Have they been who they said they were?
ReplyDeleteI've seen the show "Catfish" a few times, too. The part that is the most scary is some students think, "Oh, that's not going to happen to me," and they continue to do the same reckless behavior. We had a presentation at our school this year where a guy came in from the Michigan Attorney General's office and was supposed to talk to the junior high about cyberbullying, catfishing and some other stuff, but he focused most of his time on personal anecdotes and didn't get to the important stuff like this! Which was incredibly frustrating. I wonder how we could get more students to take this sort of thing seriously when making friends online and to help them realize that it certainly could happen to them.
ReplyDeleteAngela,
ReplyDeleteIt's unfortunate the guy that came in to discuss catfishing didn't get to the good details but I'm really encouraged that your school had someone come in to talk about this topic! Any idea about his information or contact? Thanks!
It was through the MI Attorney General's office. On their website it seems like the big push or kids is the OK2Say app, but there's also a section of the website that talks about Cybersafety (http://www.michigan.gov/ok2say/0,5413,7-309-65191_67352---,00.html). There's a link on there somewhere for schools to also schedule a presentation where they typically cover various things like cyberbullying, cybersafety and other health risks to students who participate in risky behavior.
DeleteThank you for getting back to me! I will definitely have to look into this and maybe talk to my CT about this to see if my current placement does or has ever thought about doing anything like this.
DeleteThis is actually really relevant for me because my siblings' school has had some issues with a form of catfishing with their students. There have been at least three issues of strange people friend-requesting masses of the high school students, predominantly female. In two cases, the man had a random name and only sent "Hey, what's up" messages to a few kids. However the second incident the man (or woman or adolescent) used the name of parent (spelled slightly differently) and used the page to post rude comments about the school and the student population and would send bullying messages to students.
ReplyDeleteI agree that it is a great idea to have a person like someone from the Michigan Attorney General's office talk to student's so they can understand the potential severity of the situation. I think it also becomes worse problem as younger and younger kids become reliant on social media and "we're texting" becomes the equivalent of "we're in a relationship."
I have had a few family members and friends get into some online relationships. Honestly the first thing we would always say was "you are going to get catfished." Luckily for them that was not the case. They were able to video chat with these people and those people never asked for money. There was one case where the girl my friend met online changed her last name to my friends even though they had never even met. That escalted very quickly and we would constantly ask him "is this girl real?" He said they have skyped so he knew she was real. We still all thought it was a little weird but she was real. He was happy so we just let him do his thing. If we had been suspicious we would have convinced him to stop talking to the girl.
ReplyDeleteExcellent post! Great introduction, facts and a very good resource to use. Good job.
ReplyDelete