Pursuasive essay !! DUE:1-25-2013

Destiney Holbrook

G-Dubs

1/17/13

Language arts 12

Change the “fake”.

Have you ever had your mind played with from a fake profile? Have you ever made a fake profile to play with somebody else’s mind? Have you ever been a witness to somebody either being a victim of this or the attacker themselves? Well I bet everybody answered yes to at least one of the questions above. But one thing I bet you didn’t know, having a fake profile, and using it to mess with others is bullying.

88% of people that create fake profiles to mess with people don’t know that it is in fact a crime. Well 98% of those people are actually high school, middle school students, and even registered sex offenders. When they create a fake account they go into it thinking it is just a joke, and no real harm can be done with it. It is against the law, because it is in fact bullying. Weather it is intended or not.  Two teenage girls were arrested in Florida, for impersonating another student and “Cyber stalking” by posting offensive comments on others facebook, and twitter profiles. Another case occurred in Minnesota; a student created a false facebook page for a sixth grader, and used it to make violent and offensive threats. There are so many more cases of this type of thing happening but never having action taken.

In 2005 on MySpace alone there was a reported 116 million fake profiles created. 744 of those being registered sex offenders. That is only MySpace’s records. I’m sure there were many more that were either never reported, or never even known about. The thing about a false profile is that sometimes you never really know. Sometimes it can be completely obvious, and sometimes they hide it so well you would never even think twice about it. Most recorded incidents happen to be either bullying or luring young children for sick reasons I will not mention. This outbreak of using false profiles is being compared to the huge outbreak in “sexting” rates. In 2005 the outbreak in “sexting” occurred. This kind of falls into place with using a false profile. Some people will pretend to be somebody they are not, to get a revealing picture of another person; 8 out of 10 times women are the victims of this. That is not so with fake profiles. Women tend to be the attackers in using these.

There are many cites trying to take action with fake profiles, but not too many are succeeding in this. In 2006 face book released a policy called, “No “Fake” names”. This prevented anybody from using a fake name. Or at least they thought it would. This policy meant that if Face book thought the name you were using was possibly fake; they would message you, and ask for a copy of your personal information. This triggered some good and bad things to happen. Some people thought that this was wrong, and that nobody should question what you choose to have your name as on “your” profile. But some people were frightened by this, so they deleted their false accounts, the number of fake profiles decreased that year. They no longer enforce that policy with face book. In my opinion that is why we have had a very big increase the past 3 ½ years.

I did a few experiments with false profiles, for this study. I created a fake “MeetMe” account, and added about 389 people I did not know.  Out of all 389 people, only two suspected that it was a fake account. I posted a whole life long story about being 15 years old; raised in a small town, but making it big in Los Angeles where I currently reside, starring on many big time T.V shows. Who in their right mind would believe something like that? Ooh 387 people. The point of this is that there are many profiles that are very obvious that they are fake accounts. The thing that needs to be done when you see a fake account is report it. This is the first step to becoming a hero, possibly by saving somebody from a long life of heartbreak, rape, or bullying.

There is currently a T.V show called. “Catfish”. If any of you have seen it, you know what it is about.  People being in cyber relationships, and some that are possibly lying about who they are, well these guys made a show to help anybody with this type of problem by finding that person and meeting up with them to find out who they really are. 9 times out of 10 it backfires on them. They are usually all real people, pretending to be somebody that they aren’t. I believe the point of this, is to lower the extremely high number of false profiles all over the world. We are not the only country to have this problem. It happens everywhere; in places you would never even expect it too.  I believe that most people, who make fake profile, are insecure. Why else would you take time out of your life to hurt people the way you are by using a false profile? If you have ever been bullied by somebody using a fake profile, you will understand why it is important that we stop this altogether. If you’re against bullying you will also understand why this needs to stop. Not only for them, but for the victims of the sex offenders, and people like that. The people who use websites to get to innocent children, women, and even some men. It is wrong and it needs to end.

There are many, many ways to prevent being a victim of a false profile attacks. Reporting the profile by turning it in to the creators. If it a Sevier case, you can take it to your local police department, and have it taken care of through them. Some people believe that nothing bad can happen through this, but in fact anything can happen. If you get lured in by a sexual predator, you can’t tell me you do not think anything bad would happen from that. They have ways to make it look like they aren’t creepies. But guess what, anybody can be.

We need a change, and I believe that if we pull together we can fix this problem. It all starts with you. If you see a friend or acquaintance being bullied, and/or sexually harassed and suspect it is a fake account, report it. It will take a total of three minutes to take care of. If you wait you could have a lifetime full of regret, or even guilt, for letting it happen. If it is you doing using the fake account, this is serious. Delete it, and quit messing with people’s minds. You may not realize it, but you can do some serious damage to somebody’s life. Sometimes, you do this because you are insecure, well you are you, don’t let anybody put you down for it. And you shouldn’t want to put others down for who they are. Let’s make a difference and take a stand. STOP the fake profiles.   

 

 

Works Cited

Davis, Michelle R. "Students Create Fake E-Profiles To Bully Peers." Education Week 31.27 (2012): 1-13. Academic Search Premier. Web. 15 Jan. 2013.

Gaylord, Chris. "Facebook's forgotten rule: No fake names allowed." Christian Science Monitor Feb. 2012: N.PAG. Academic Search Premier. Web. 17 Jan. 2013.

Graham, John R., Dana Watts, and Rodney E. Timbrook. "Detecting Fake-Good And Fake-Bad MMPI-2 Profiles." Journal Of Personality Assessment 57.2 (1991): 264. Academic Search Premier. Web. 15 Jan. 2013.

Roush, Wade. "Fakesters." Technology Review 109.5 (2006): 72-74. Academic Search Premier. Web. 15 Jan. 2013.

Stein, L.A.R., John R. Graham, and Carolyn L. Williams. "Detecting Fake-Bad MMPI-A Profiles." Journal Of Personality Assessment 65.3 (1995): 415. Academic Search Premier. Web. 15 Jan. 2013.