Should catfishing be a crime?

[linkrewasd]

Do you think catfishing should be a crime if no one is scammed into giving money or anything, I am talking purely pretending to be someone else and chatting to that person. Obviously it's disgusting and awful to catfish in any capacity whatsoever.

Why would it be a crime? Nobody's doing anything illegal. How would it be any different to posting on an anonymous forum?

How would they police that? If they use it to scam then it's already illegal. If they use it for companionship then as I say how could you police it and surely it becomes the other persons responsibility to not become to attached to an online stranger who cant prove its really them.

Catfish as in give a fake name, steal someone's photos and pass them as your own, make up a fantasy life and use it to develop a romantic or platonic relationship? No it shouldn't be illegal. People should exercise common sense and take responsibility for their choices and what they believe.

Mixed feelings, obviously I don't want to criminalise everything, but it is annoying.

There needs to be a punishment between giving someone a criminal record and no punishment.

No. Not everything should be criminalised. The best way to avoid catfishing is educating people on how to identify it.

Catfishing, as in to pretend to be someone else in order to date them on an online platform, in itself, no.

I certainly think theres an argument to be made for making it illegal to have sex without informed consent. Or if they said they were infertile and didn't need to use contraception and then got pregnant/got someone pregnant. So if someone pretended they were married when they were single or a different person then theres not really consent as the other person wouldn't have slept with them but for the lie.

This has already been prosecuted successfully a few times where, bizarrely, women have pretended to be men in order to get women to have sex with them (it involved blindfolds).

Unfortunately unlikely to happen because theres too many men to do it.

Hmmm. Unsure. I think there should be penalties where people actively steal the identity of someone else in order to catfish, given the potential harm they could do to that person (in addition to the people they are catfishing).

Where people use old photos / stock photos / made up name etc though I think it's harder.

Tough one. Obviously it’s not nice, but difficult to police. How is catfishing defined? Different name? Lives in different country? Already married? Said you earn £100k but don’t? More grey hairs than your photo? A stone heavier than your photo? Photos are all taken travelling abroad and doing exciting things, but they’re actually quite boring only want to stay at home? I’ve had my share of catfishes but wonder what would make someone guilty

Also where do you draw the line....women who wear chicken fillets, tons of make up, wigs and hair extensions and face tape in a picture to make themselves look attractive.....are they catfishing?