MP calls for online ‘catfishing’ crackdown
A‘CATFISHING’ crackdown could involve dating websites being ranked for safety – and daters uploading passport details to prove their identity.
The proposals have been made by Stockport MP Ann Coffey, who is campaigning for a new law which would make it illegal to ‘catfish’.
Catfishing involves creating a false identity to dupe someone into a relationship.
The MP became interested in the online phenomenon after she was approached by Matt Peacock, a model from Stockport whose identity was stolen from him by a man who used his picture to lure women on dating websites for four years.
Now Ms Coffey has called for a star-rated league table for dating and social media websites based on how many complaints they receive, showing how safe they are to use.
She says these websites should be forced to introduce more robust ways of checking the identity of their users – including scanning passports and driving licences and using photo recognition software to protect people from being deceived.
The government has proposed a voluntary code of practice, but Ms Coffey says that does not go far enough, and that there needs to be a statutory ‘digital mediation/ monitoring complaints board’ to enforce proper standards and take action.
“A league table of how safe websites are and how likely you are to be duped would expose in bright lights those who are not doing enough to protect their users,” she said.
“Websites have to take responsibility and put their money where their mouth is to develop more robust ways of checking the identity of people who use their sites.
“A new monitoring board to enforce standards would force them to clean up their act and would be far more effective than a voluntary code of conduct.”
After raising Mr Peacock’s case in Parliament she was approached by a number of other victims.
“The government should create a new offence of catfishing which would have the very desirable effect of making people less likely to falsely use someone else’s identity online and enable the prosecution of persistent catfish,” she added.
“Making catfishing illegal would be a massive deterrent. If people knew pretending to be another person was an offence they would be put off.”