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FINE GAEL TD Barry Ward has called on the government to make it illegal to impersonate someone in order to trick people online, a practice known as ‘catfishing’.
Ward said in the Dáil today that catfishing is “immoral and wrong” and that it harms not only those people who are duped by impersonators, but also the people whose identities are being assumed.
He also said that while the practice may breach defamation laws and, in cases where money is paid to an impersonator, legislation covering fraud, he wants the government to define catfishing in legislation and make it explicitly illegal.
“We can all recognise that this is wrong and immoral. What is extraordinary is that it is not illegal. It is clear that catfishing is not against the law in Ireland,” Ward said.
“In many instances, it has happened in the context of online dating and romantic contexts but there is also a wider issue in respect of fraud and things like that,” Ward said.
“How can we expect to stop people from doing this and how can we expect anything to change if we do not make this illegal and introduce real consequences in the courts and in criminal justice legislation for people who do this?” he asked.
During his contribution in the Dáil, Ward referenced cases which have been highlighted by Irish podcasts, particularly ‘Cruel Intentions: Catching the Catfish’ and ‘The 2 Johnnies’.
“Listening to Johnny B. and Johnny Smacks on ‘The 2 Johnnies’ podcast, the extent of and detail involved in what they describe as having happened is extraordinary. Any person could be hoodwinked by it,” Ward said.
He said it must be remembered “that the images used to dupe people online are images of real people, although they have been misused in the context of the catfishing. Those people are also affected by this”.
“On the “Cruel Intentions” podcast, I heard of a young woman whose image had been stolen. She is afraid that, when going into a local coffee shop, she will be approached by someone who thinks they are in a relationship with her because her image has been used online,” he said.
“It damages a whole range of people even if they are not involved and have done nothing wrong.”
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Jesus, it’s getting fairly bad at this stage. RIP.
He’s not dead thankfully.
Did he die?
It’s not that it’s getting bad, these spree shootings while dramatic aren’t the biggest problem. On average 85 people die every day from small arms.
no
America, F*ck yeah!!
Yeah, there’s never any violence anywhere else …
… no, wait a moment.
Yeah Damocles there’s loads of shootings in schools and public places all over the world…oh wait…
There are probably more places that have had public shootings than not.
Not once a month.
twice a month?
Back to sleep Damocles…
You ain’t seen nothin’ yet. Wait till the nutty Republicans are elected in November.
And another shooting, look US I know you like your second amendment and all but this is getting crazy. How many random shootings is it so far this this summer? (ignoring the 80+ gun related deaths on average per day)
I wonder how many of these deaths annually are down to illegally held guns? Or accidental?
You can pry the guns from their cold dead hands, i think thats the mantra from the NRA….. America will never give up there guns…..
Seriously, what do they need to happen to make them see -get rid of the freakin guns!
Are they really that stupid?
Yes
Yes they are
Its worse, the NRA has all the politicians bought, not one of them will speak out for gun regulation because money speaks more than common sense over there and if you do good luck trying to get reelected. After the Dark Knight shooting Obama said that they’ll continue to enforce existing laws. I.e. not do a damn thing.
Do you understand the difficulty in changing the United States constitution? The cluster f**k of a process? Since 1937, Ireland has been able to pass 25 amendments. The US has passed 17 since 1791. The Bill of Rights, of which the right to bear arms is a part, is culturally sacrosanct. I’m not saying it should be, just that it plays into the lack of a social momentum to change it. And the sad fact is, the deaths from firearms occur disproportionately in minorities.
There is an unspoken ‘let god sort ‘em out’ lack of compassion when it comes to affecting change for something that may not be in your proverbial backyard. I don’t know what it could possibly take to change this as it appears the ‘unimaginable’ happens with gut-wrenching frequency.
Why do people in Ireland (a failed state) feel so superior to Americans?
How is Ireland a ‘failed state’ ??
Obviously!
The NRA regularly respond to these shootings with: if everyone had a gun only the assailant would die…. Classic logic!
School books…check
Lunch money…..check
Uzi…check
They should outlaw hammers in Australia.
Oh OK, then they should outlaw assults in Cork that involve 6-7 men.
Another day another shooting.
In 2010 – the latest year for which detailed statistics are available – there were 12,996 murders in the US. Of those, 8,775 were caused by firearms.
http://m.guardian.co.uk/news/datablog/2011/jan/10/gun-crime-us-state?cat=news&type=article
In 2011 there were 16,799 homicides in the US, of which 11,493 were firearm offences.
That’s a rate of 5.5 per 100,000 overall (or 3.7 for firearms).
On the article in the journal a few weeks ago about the man in the US who mistakingly received a gun in the post instead of a TV he ordered, Rather than hand it over to the police, as he rightly did 444 out of 488 thumbs (90%) were in favour of him keeping it. By that stat over 90% agree with the US 2nd amendment. Or would it be the right to illegally keep and bear arms.
How unlucky are you David, just when you show the “latest” figures some know it all only pull more recent figures out of the bag…..
Leave the room, Vinny, this is a conversation for grown-ups…
Well Jonathan in a “conversation for grown ups” you’ve told one person to go back to sleep and another person to leave the room!!!!
At the rate you’re maturing uou’ll soon be able to wear big boy pants! Keep it up
It’s all in the game yo.
5% of the worlds people, 55% of the worlds handguns.
There was a time stories like this were shocking.
It’s like one eejit sees what another eejit does and tries to out do the other eejit.
Thankful the kid is still alive.
Why cant they all be good neighbours and friends to each other like we are here. If Irish people could buy guns in Tesco they would never carry on like this.
Surely ALL US school kids should be given guns! To protect themselves from the crazy ones.. totes obvious. #packsomeheat
What episode of The Wire is this from?
send in McNutty and the lezzer to sort em out.
Shhhhhiiiiitttttt!
Think stringer bell had his crew try and take out Omar.
I hope killing classmates will not become popular in Europe. Least thing you want to worrie about is weather your child will come home from school or not
Let’s hope the person survives, but on the issue of gun control, banning guns will not solve gun violence, people like the Aurora shooter, the Sikh temple shooter and all the rest, do people think they would obey gun laws if they were introduced? most certainly not. And even if gun laws were somehow established in the U.S. How will the police manage to get all of the guns? Or at least keep tabs on them. Also the people who commit these crimes will think of other ways to carry out violence, Timothy McVeigh for example killed 158 people with a truck bomb in 1995 in Oklahoma, how will we prevent people from making bombs? ban the internet? The instrument itself is not the problem, its the person that is using it.
Im not for ordinary citizens having access to guns at all. But in america alot of guns are bought at county fairs etc with no background checks taking place, also sure anyone cud buy a gun and just give it to someone. But the same argument could be used for any weapon, a knife, harpoon, hammer anything, in the wrong hands its going to cause destruction to life, and unfortunately that is life, and always will be, there are just nut jobs out there, and they will always have access to some sort of weapon
As clay davis would say ssshhhhhiiiiitttttt!
Think “rumours of [his] demise are exaggerated” (Mark Twain). Hopefully that will remain the case. Just crazy stuff happening in the States. Who will bell the cat of gun control?
Get McNulty on this detail!
Only in America!!
Only in America
Only in America!!!
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