There are more than three million Internet users worldwide, yet only 38% of these users are comprised of real people. With 74% of Internet users not being the person they claim to be behind the keyboard, the Internet is often viewed as not a private and safe place. The lack of reliable privacy settings provided social networking websites increases the misuse of people's personal information and the creation of fake profiles as well.
Teenage Demographic Ages 12-16 is Most Likely to Engage With People of False Identities Due to Their High Usage of Social Networking Websites Compared to Other Age Demographics and Their Lack of Attention Towards Privacy
Teenagers are the most susceptible age demographic to engage with fake profiles due to their large presence on social networking cites and their lack of attention towards keeping their personal information private. In today's society, the average teenager spends 44.5 hours per week on social media websites. These teenagers, generally ages 12-17, devote endless hours a day sharing and encouraging others to share their personal information on social media. Most teenagers, however, are completely unaware of how unsafe the sharing of photographs of themselves and their personal information on the Internet can be. According to a study conducted by Peer Research Center's Internet Library Survey, the average teenager shared approximately twice the amount personal information in 2012 compared to what they shared in 2006. The study showed that from 2006 to 2012, there was a 12% increase of teenagers who posted photos of themselves on the Internet and a 22% increase of teenagers who posted videos of themselves on the Internet. In a similar study conducted by Peer Research Center's Internet Library Survey in 2013, and as shown on the graph below, teenagers ages 12-17 were asked which five aspects about their personal information they share most on their personal profiles.
By Internet users having the ability to access this much personal information of just the average teenager, it creates an extremely unsafe viral environment. The Internet automatically stores any piece of information ever posted. When a teenager posts their personal information, it is forever on the Internet for anyone to access. The permanent access to personal information that should be kept private gives people who are looking to create a fake profiles all the right tools to do so. Although most teenagers claim to keep their profiles private and report high levels of confidence in their ability to manage their settings, they are blind to how often people, such as sexual predators and pedophiles, misuse people's personal information. Today's popular social networking websites, such as Facebook, Twitter, and MySpace, do not provide enough privacy settings to prevent the creation of fake profiles using people's personal information and photographs.
Sina Lee, Women Studies Professor at the University of Maryland, describes in the interview below her beliefs on why people create fake profiles and how the easy access to one's personal information to create fake profiles affects her views on Internet safety today.
Privacy Settings Provided by Social Networking Websites Leaves Settings in Hands of the User and Leads to an Increase in the Amount of Fake Profiles on the Internet Today
The lack of descriptive and enforced privacy settings by social networking websites, such as Facebook, has opened a huge doorway for those who seek to create fake profiles. Although each social networking website has their own set of privacy settings and provides the user give consent to a privacy agreement when they first create their account, the extent of these privacy settings is completely left in the hands of the user. Privacy on social networking sites are mainly designed to be specific towards what the user is comfortable with.
However, results of a recent study conducted by Brandtzaeg, which observed how users felt about privacy settings, showed that users do not like having the option to control their privacy settings because they find them confusing. Privacy settings are often viewed to be a burden to the website and people avoid setting them in a way that best protects their personal information because of such. The lack of enforcement from the social networking websites on privacy perpetuates the creation of more fake profiles by making it more accessible to attain other people's information. It also promotes "stalking" in allowing a user of any social networking site to be able to locate the exact location of another user. In regards to Facebook, there are currently no mandatory restrictions from profiles to people they do not know or are not considered "friends" with online. Although Facebook's terms of service document states that users are not allowed to have more than one Facebook personal account of accounts on behalf of other people and a Facebook user is not encouraged to make an account if they are under 13 without the consent of a parent, users continue to do so. In fact, Facebook's most recently updated regulatory filling data shows that 8.7 percent of its 955 million monthly active users worldwide are still comprised of duplicate or false accounts.
MTV Series "Catfish" and Dateline NBC Series "To Catch a Predator" Illustrate the Extent to Which False Profiles Can Go and How These Fake Profiles Have Affected People's Outlook on Internet Safety
Fake profiles are often created as an escape for people to portray someone they are not. As illustrated in MTV Series "Catfish", produced by Nev Schulman and Max Joseph, and the show "To Catch a Predator", produced by American television journalist Chris Hanson, people are not always who they claim to be behind the keyboard. These reality-based documented television series exposes people to how easy it is to steal another peoples' identities through gathering of personal information shared on social media. As seen on the MTV series "Catfish" people have been in online relationships up to several years with other people they have never even meet. Through phony photographs and heartfelt conversations, people often believe these "fake" profiles are those of real people. Shulman and Joespeh illustrate the intense and vigorous investigations it takes in order to solve the anonymous identify behind the fake profiles that are such a large part of peoples' relationship lives as well. In the Dateline NBC Series "To Catch a Predator", producer Chris Hanson creates fake teenage profiles, generally ages 13-15, in order to catch detaining male adults who contacted these teenagers over the Internet for sexual liaisons. These males, often referred to throughout the show as "predators", were then told to meet with a decoy under the pretense of sexual contact, where they were then confronted and arrested by police. Both the TV shows "Catfish" and "To Catch a Predator" draw people's attention to the issue that the majority of the Internet population consists of untrustworthy, non-real people. 
No comments:
Post a Comment