Article by LABC – Source: freeepik.com
When we talk about ‘catfishing’, we are referring to a form of cyberbullying.
Catfishing occurs when someone uses images and information (frequently stolen from other people’s social media accounts) to create a new online identity – often using an individual’s entire identity as their own, to lure people into a relationship, usually of a romantic nature. In other words, “catfishers” pretend to be someone they are not to hook people into an online romance. These newly created fake social media accounts can also be misused to damage the reputation of the real owner’s identity, to spy on him/her, or to provide any other possibility for manipulation. Some catfishers go to extremes to create fake identities, running multiple social media accounts to build and validate their catfishing profiles.
Although in the past catfishing was more frequent among adults using online dating platforms, it has recently started to become a more widespread problem involving young adults and teenagers, more susceptible to catfishing because they tend to share more personal information with strangers, and they frequently ‘friend’ people they do not know in real life.
From this point of view, there are two main dangerous aspects of this phenomenon that should be highlighted. First of all, catfishing occurs when pedophiles pretend to be teenagers in order to build relationships with tweens and teens. They encourage their targets to share intimate information, that is then used to lure them into a meeting.
On the other hand, it can also be identified as catfishing when teenagers become the main actors in many types of online impersonations, usually with the aim of humiliating and embarrassing their victims. In these cases, teenagers often adopt invented identities to lure a person into a fake relationship; then, they may use the information gathered to embarrass and abuse the victims. This type of impersonation is clearly a form of cyberbullying. Cyberbullies often tend to exploit online their victims’ emotions, especially if they discover something that makes the person sad, depressed, scared or lonely.
When realizing to be victims of catfishing, it is really important to report it to the social media provider as soon as possible. In some cases it is worth contacting the police, especially if the person has asked for money or to meet in person. It is also very important not to unfriend the person before talking to the relevant authorities: online friendship can be the key to catching the catfish once and for all.
Follow IMEDIAL project to find out more about cyberbullying and related phenomena, and to discover which are the best ways to detect them and help victims.