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Throughout history there has always been a form of predatory behaviour and the present is no different and potentially worse for with the age of the internet came a new platform, a platform which unknowingly allowed another form of predators to appear and that was online predators.
But how is this shown?
And how do the public become aware of the dangers on the internet?
The media.
Yet the media can be swayed in terms of how they write an article due to multiple different factors this will investigate how gender is a factor for example, a male celebrity was preyed on while using online dating and resulted in him getting catfished (met someone online who had a fake persona).
He was preyed on by a person who had malicious intents and attempted to blackmail him by posting nude photos of him online unless he complied with the blackmailers wishes. He did not.
This resulted in the blackmailer leaking a sex tape of him online. [2]
The media, news outlets reported it frequently as a “scandal” which can be quite misleading as it could suggest there was consent whereas there was a victim. This suggests that the media is more prone/swayed to use language which may give the wrong impression to bring in an audience.
It is also worth noting that the use of social media is an important factor when making the public aware of information but is also useful to see how people react to stories or articles produced.
With the case of the male celebrity, it is shown that instead of feeling supportive or whishing all is okay, people were more curious with the photos and tape then the wellbeing of the victim instead, this suggests people were less likely to view him as a victim and more of a willing participant despite the lack of consent due to there being a false identity from the predator.
However, when females are targeted by online predators’ different terms are used when describing them in the media they are called victims as shown in the metro which title states “Catfish called ‘danger to women’ after scamming victims of thousands” [3]
By doing this the media stir up sympathy for the female victims and therefore allow the readers to become aware of the dangers online and educate them on how to potentially be safe and what to avoid.
This is vastly different to the male victim where the article title was “from catfish scandal to marriage” [2]. This is different for it does not build up sympathy in the audience as the title comes across to the readers as less of a warning of the dangers but more of a gossip column exposing peoples mistakes.
But why is there a difference in reporting shown in the media when it comes to gender?
In 2018, The metro did a poll to get an idea on the amount of people catfished and the percentage catfished based on gender.
Image 2 [4]
This poll reported that 28% of women had been catfished whereas 43% of men which took part in this poll were victims of catfishing / online predators [4]. Despite this poll reporting men are more likely to be targeted by online predators, the media does not necessarily discuss men as victims in their articles.
So overall there is a difference in the media reporting when it comes to terms of the gender who has been preyed on even though gender should not matter in relation to victims. The media however despite this difference can still be a good source of educating people on the dangers of online predators when you take gender out of the equation when looking for information on the subject as seen when the media uses its influence to warn parents about the dangers of online predators and how to keep their children safe, this is done by the media using titles that have the term “parent” in them to directly connect to the readers for example “10 apps parents should know about: these are used by child predators, say police” [5].
References
[1] Microsoft Stock Images [Accessed 16/03/2021]
[2] Blackman, Sophie., 2020. Inside Masked Singer Joel Dommett's love life – from catfish scandal to marriage. [Online] Daily Star. Available at: https://www.dailystar.co.uk/showbiz/inside-masked-singer-joel-dommetts-23216962 [Accessed 05/03/2021]
[3] King, Jordan., 2021. Catfish called ‘danger to women’ after scamming victims of thousands. [Online] Metro. Available at: https://metro.co.uk/2021/01/30/catfish-called-danger-to-women-after-scamming-victims-of-thousands-13992911/ [Accessed 14/03/2021]
[4] Eloise, Marianne., 2018. New survey reveals the massive toll of catfishing on victims. [Online] Metro. Available at: https://metro.co.uk/2018/08/06/new-survey-reveals-the-massive-toll-of-catfishing-on-victims-7764000/ [Accessed 14/03/2021]
[5] Wilkins, Alex., 2021. 10 apps parents should know about: these are used by child predators, say police. [Online] Metro.
https://metro.co.uk/2021/02/24/parents-should-know-these-10-apps-used-by-child-predators-say-police-14136898/ [Accessed 15/03/2021]
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