Online identity theft
I haven’t come across the issue of online identity theft before, but it obviously exists. I’m not talking criminal theft, with money involved, but rather the adoption of someone else’s persona to cause mischief.
This would be easy to do in a social networking environment and have severe consequences, as this story from the Kalgoorlie Miner illustrates:
These articles might be of interest:A KALGOORLIE girl has received physical threats after being caught in the middle of an internet chat line slanging match. Shelley Martin, 17, claims someone has used her name to spread malicious rumours online, sparking some very serious threats from those offended.
Her concerned mother, Wendy, has had enough of people threatening her daughter and contacted the Kalgoorlie Miner to set the record straight.
“I just want everyone to realise this wasn’t her,” Mrs Martin said.
The web site (www.bebo.com) blocked the fake profile at Mrs Martin’s request on Thursday, two weeks after they became aware of the problem.
Bebo is a social networking site where users can post pictures, write blogs and send messages to one another and is similar in format to MySpace, Xanga and Yahoo! 360. “I have had people come to my house,” Mrs Martin said.
“One parent told me her daughter was so angry that if she saw her on the street she was going to walk up to her and punch her.
“People should see how much damage they have caused. They have put someone’s life at risk. These are not nice things that have been circulated.”
The situation is even more absurd considering the Martins are not connected to the internet. “Someone has been pretending to be my daughter to make trouble for her but it is not her at all,” Mrs Martin said.
“We do not even have the internet but we still have to put up with this.”
Mrs Martin has also contacted Kalgoorlie police.
This is a bigger problem than realised.
The negative impact of Bebo is wide-spread. The administrators of this site are irresponsible.
Already there have been two reported suicides that I know of, as a consequence of cyberbullying taking place on Bebo.
Of course those kids lacked resiliance; however, it’s the phenomenon of cyberbullying, and the forums that provide a venue for cyberbullying, that must be considered as significant contributors to cyberbullying.
It’s not only students, but teachers’ that experience appalling abuse contributed to cyberbullying stemming from sites such as Bebo.
Teachers’ have experienced shocking days, that they cannot fathom, until they later discover students have spent the night before participating in hateful exchanges about them. Sometimes parents’ are involved.
Here’s a direct quote from psychologist, Laurie Zelingerc(source: Munro, I. (2007) Frail egos caught in killer net, The Sydney Morning Herald Weekend Edition):
‘…understanding adolescent behaviour meant understaning how their brains develop, which is in a predictable pattern from back to front. The cerebellum, located in the back, houses the amydala, which is the seat of emotion. As such, adolescents often experience rage and fear, since the area is among the first areas to develop. The front part of the brain, the last to develop, controls decision-making, interpreting emotions and executive decisions, rendering teens biologically incapable of making mature decisions in some contexts.
Between the ages of 12 and 16, the pre-frontal cortex also shows decreased grey matter, thereby further limiting the capability of the child to make sound decisions.
Then puberty rushes in, bringing an onslaught of hormones seeking excitement and arousal. This combination of late front brain development, with its poor decision-making skills, and hormonal influences, often leads to risk-taking behaviour and intense emotional involvement.
Teens can thus be easily influenced, intensely reactive, and especially vulnerable [read suicidal if being bullied AND too-agreeable if taking part in the bullying] to the opinions of their peers.’