online dating

Could ‘Catfishing’ Become Illegal?

In the age of online dating, I’m sure you know at least one couple who have an extremely romantic, fairytale of a story that goes along the lines of ‘once upon a time, when they both swiped right…’ to explain how they met. Meeting a partner online is not uncommon. In a world where pretty much everything centralises around social media, the likes of Match.com, Tinder and other popular dating sites are a big go-to for people hoping to be lucky in love. However, whilst you may have heard many a success story, and people do find a companion online, hiding behind a keyboard or phone screen can become all too tempting for some people, who create fake profiles to target those just looking for a good time. And that’s when it becomes complicated. Catfishing is the term used for someone who is pretending to be someone they’re not whilst using online dating. Due to the devastating consequences this type of fooling around can sometimes have, could catfishing soon become illegal?

The calls for fake profile users to be prosecuted come as a woman named Anne Rowe was completely fooled by a seemingly regular guy she met online. Anne, aged 44 met and fell in love with ‘Anthony Ray’ on the popular dating app Tinder. Things were going well (or so she thought) and she met up with Anthony regularly. After nearly a year, the couple even spoke of marriage in some of the thousands of messages that they exchanged online. To explain his regular absences, Ray told Anne that he was a businessman that travelled abroad for work purposes. When the truth came out, Anne found out that Ray was actually married with children and their whole relationship had been based on one, very elaborate, lie. To make matters worse, Anna was not Anthony Ray’s only victim and he has in fact tricked other women into fake relationships. Ann had trusted this man enough to become his fiancee, only to found out the man she was supposed to be marrying was nothing other than an internet persona.

Whilst this may sound trivial compared to some of the tragedies we hear of in the media today, Anne is actually calling for people that use a fake profile to be prosecuted, after experiencing the emotional effects of being catfished herself. She wants the government to have tighter rules when it comes to online dating, forcing people to use their real names on their profiles to prevent fake identities tricking people into what seems like a real, loving and stable relationship – like Anne thought she had with Ray. She goes on to explain how it is unfair to take advantage of someone who craves companionship as well as a loving relationship.

Ironically, only when the tables were turned did Anne discover that Ray actually wasn’t who he said he was. Some time into their ‘relationship’ Ray suddenly became distant, so much so that Anne didn’t see or hear from him for several months. After a while, she found him again on Tinder. Knowing this wasn’t right, she decided to use a fake profile to get back in touch with Ray. Rowe knew she had been duped when the cycle began again and the same sort of thing started to happen as when they first began talking. Deciding enough is enough, Rowe revealed her true identity and prepared herself for a long string of excuses from Ray. Like anyone, having her trust betrayed is not something that Anne has taken lightly and she has now started a petition to make catfishing an illegal offence. Although it’s early days, I’m sure this story applies to thousands of people out there and maybe it is about time we make online dating a little less mid-leading?

 

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