Law must change to end the heartache and menace of online 'catfishing'
3 min read
Ann Coffey MP urges the Government to make it an offence to steal someone's identity and pose as them online.
We need a new law to tackle the growing scourge of ‘catfishing’ by sexual predators who create false identities to lure people into relationships.
The internet has bought about many positive changes but it has also brought complex problems of how to protect people from those who want to deceive and harm them online.
Today I will use an adjournment debate in the Commons to highlight the extent of catfishing which was first brought to my attention by one of my constituents.
Matt Peacock, is a male model from Stockport, who has had his identity stolen online for the past four years by a catfish. This has caused Matt untold distress as the catfish has used Matt’s pictures on dating websites to create fake social media profiles to entice many women.
Matt’s family have been put under terrible strain and his wife has been contacted on many occasions to be wrongly told that her husband was cheating on her, asking women for sexual photographs and videos.
Photographs of Mr Peacock’s nephews and nieces have also been used by the catfish who claimed they were his children in an attempt to appear as ‘caring’ to single mothers he was trying to seduce.
Moreover, the women who the catfish contacted using the false profile have been devastated to be deceived over a long period and at least one said she felt suicidal.
However, despite creating all this upset the police told Matt there was nothing they could do as no notifiable crime has been committed by the ‘catfish’. This was despite Matt obtaining a taped confession from the ‘catfish’.
At the moment there is no specific law against stealing another person’s identity. That must change. We need a new law to make it crystal clear that if someone takes another person’s identity and poses as them online then they are committing an offence.
I have also been contacted by other victims of catfishing, including Anna Rowe, who started a petition Change.org in February 2017 calling for it to made illegal to create a fake online profile with the intention of using it to entice others into a sexual relationship.
So far she has collected 41,472 names.
Anna’s catfish created a fake online persona using Facebook accounts, emails, Skype, Snapchat and Instagram accounts to create a background story of a man divorced for 15 months and looking for a meaningful long term relationship.
Since publicising her case, Anna has been contacted by many other women who said they too had been deceived and left devastated by the same man.
In a third case, a mother who was worried about the awful effect being catfished for four months had had on her son, contacted me. He was so upset by the emotional strain it put him under that he has made a video on YouTube to warn other young people of the dangers.
Catfishing is a modern day menace affecting the lives of many people and can cause years of heartache. We must do something about this and a change in the law is the most effective deterrent.
Social media giants and dating apps must also do more to protect people and the Government’s new digital charter and the green paper on internet safety is an opportunity to arrive at agreement with companies about how to make safer online sites.
It gives a chance for a real partnership between legislators and technology to be developed to protect users from aggressive and harmful predators and for subsequent legislation to outlaw catfishing.
Ann Coffey is the Labour Member of Parliament for the Stockport Constituency
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