False Identity

Brennan Boyajian
English 101
Final Project 1

Cyber space is one of the most unique and dangerous places on earth. Many times Cyber space can get people into situations that they don’t want to be in, without them even realizing it. Most kids today don’t actually understand how dangerous Cyber space can be. With the popularity of the internet currently at its peak, many people have experience false identity in one way or another, whether it’s creating a false identity or being fooled by someone that has. Cyber space is a dangerous place and people must be careful every time they enter it.
One example of the most popular places for false identity today is Facebook. Facebook was created to keep people and touch and have a fun place to share their lives with everyone. Since it has become so popular, people have began to create false identities for a couple different reasons. Some people create an identity to get satisfaction by living as if they were someone else. Other people create them to target young people, and in particular young girls. People will create a fake profile with a fake name, add fake pictures, and add people as a friends so that they can prey on people. Many people do create a real profile and use facebook for what it was actually made for, but there are still come that don’t. There is an application where someone could make their profile private which limits what friends could see, including pictures and information. This is one way that people can protect themselves in Cyber space. The age of a person who is using the internet affects the risk percentage on if they are going to run into trouble rather than being safe. I believe kids between the ages of twelve and fifteen have a larger chance to run into trouble when they are browsing through blog sites such as facebook. For example, a kid this young will accept friend requests on facebook when he or she has no idea who the person is. Once that person has accepted the friend, they can see all of their information, leaving them open to harm.
There is no positive aspect to accepting people you don’t know for many reasons. Kids this young forget all the information they give out when he or she just clicks the accept button to be there friend. Doing this allows the person to look at pictures, interests, relationship status, birth place, age, and what school you go to. This could all lead to bad news for this youngster. Little does this person know that this individual could be a fake man trying to fool a young kid. This is something all parents are worried for about their kids. It’s not that they don’t get out of the house enough or don’t have enough friends, it’s about if their kid is safe using the internet to communicate with people and how easy it is for people to find kids to fool.
Not only parents were worried about this though. The governor of New Jersey had the same concerns. This is when the governor of New Jersey put on an experiment to distinguish how many sex offenders there actually were just in this state. The plan was to make their own fake people to find these creepy people online. In a short amount of time the government found 268 sex offenders. More people should hear about things like this. Some parents don’t have an idea just like their kids don’t about how dangerous cyber space is. If more parents heard about news on these specific topics, they would be able to warn their kids and talk about not accepting people you don’t know on facebook to be your friend. Parents finding out about sex offenders on the internet would cut down the number of sex offenders who have success fooling kids a large amount.
Another example that demonstrates false identity the show “How To Catch A Predator”.. The show is on Dateline NBC and is about proving to the world that there are very strange people out there. The host of the show is Chris Hanson and his goal is to show how easily it is for someone to use false identity to meet up with innocent people. One of the episodes I had seen was about a 14 year old girl talking with a man over the age of 30. He explains to her that he is a nice man and really cares about her. Eventually this man talks the fake 14 year old girl into coming over to her house to have a picnic. There are cops surrounding the house for when this man shows up. Imagine if there weren’t cops at the house to protect this girl? This girl would be in danger. This is why parents and even kids should see this show to prove things like this actually happen.
Another example all over the place a website named Adult Friend Finder advertises girls you can meet within your city. The advertisement shows a girl that is obviously not on the other side of the conversation. Supposedly when someone clicks on the picture they advertise he or she would be talking to a very good looking person. One would never know if they are actually speaking to a good looking or terrible looking person because it is over cyber space. They could show you more false pictures and describe false activities and interests about themselves.
All of these examples demonstrate the dangers of cyber space and false identity. No matter where you are, there is always a chance for you to be a victim of false identity. Whether it’s you creating a false identity or someone tricking you into believing their false identity, you must always be careful and be aware of the risks at hand.