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FINE GAEL TD Barry Ward has called on the government to make it illegal to impersonate someone in order to trick people online, a practice known as ‘catfishing’.
Ward said in the Dáil today that catfishing is “immoral and wrong” and that it harms not only those people who are duped by impersonators, but also the people whose identities are being assumed.
He also said that while the practice may breach defamation laws and, in cases where money is paid to an impersonator, legislation covering fraud, he wants the government to define catfishing in legislation and make it explicitly illegal.
“We can all recognise that this is wrong and immoral. What is extraordinary is that it is not illegal. It is clear that catfishing is not against the law in Ireland,” Ward said.
“In many instances, it has happened in the context of online dating and romantic contexts but there is also a wider issue in respect of fraud and things like that,” Ward said.
“How can we expect to stop people from doing this and how can we expect anything to change if we do not make this illegal and introduce real consequences in the courts and in criminal justice legislation for people who do this?” he asked.
During his contribution in the Dáil, Ward referenced cases which have been highlighted by Irish podcasts, particularly ‘Cruel Intentions: Catching the Catfish’ and ‘The 2 Johnnies’.
“Listening to Johnny B. and Johnny Smacks on ‘The 2 Johnnies’ podcast, the extent of and detail involved in what they describe as having happened is extraordinary. Any person could be hoodwinked by it,” Ward said.
He said it must be remembered “that the images used to dupe people online are images of real people, although they have been misused in the context of the catfishing. Those people are also affected by this”.
“On the “Cruel Intentions” podcast, I heard of a young woman whose image had been stolen. She is afraid that, when going into a local coffee shop, she will be approached by someone who thinks they are in a relationship with her because her image has been used online,” he said.
“It damages a whole range of people even if they are not involved and have done nothing wrong.”
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I’m more interested in how much it increased from 2021 to 2022 and more to the point from January 2020 to December 2022 ..
It’s all so backwards. Energy providers are claiming the price increase is due to increased fuel costs, yet they are all reporting massive profit increases during the same period. Price gouging and war profiteering at it’s finest and the Government/Regulators are doing nothing about it.
Does anyone think it will ever go back down in price again?
@David Mc Cabe: never once up it’ll stay there.
Go with the storage heater like David suggested. 1.5KW per hour would cost you your ESB rate per hour. Say your rate is 40 cents per KW (unit) then it would cost you 60 cents per hour to run it. If you had it on for 4 hours it would cost you €2.40.
Can someone advise, which is more cost efficient, a storage plug in heater or a fan heater? Thank you
@Julie: Get the wattage off both units and I will run the calculations for you.
@Julie: I think an oil storage plug in heater is better, fan heaters need to be always on and when switched off you notice the temp. drop within 5 min. Oil radiators will switch off when a set temp. is reached and switch back on if the temp. falls below a certain amount also keep dont go cold quickly after they switch off.
@David Corrigan: Thank you David, the fan is 2000 watts and the storage heater is 1.5kw
@David Mc Cabe: Thank you David!
@Julie: @Julie: looks like the heater will use 25% less electricity over an hour and be on less because it stores a certain amt of heat. Keeping the heater on level 1 over an extended period is the way to use them.
@Julie: I have one of the Oil Filled Radiators 1.5kw, it has 3 setting 700w, 800w and 1.5kw. It has a min – max temperature dial. I mostly just use the 800w setting with the temp turned about 60-70% full. (Large Double Bedroom) At this setting it will switch on for 15 min, and turn itself off for about 10 min. So using a full hour of electric power it is actually on for 1hr 40 mins. I believe the price for this was about 16c – 20c per hour. ( 1hr 40mins of actually being on consuming power)
I only use the 1.5kw setting on the really colder days.
@David Mc Cabe: you are a star thank you!!
@John Keane: Thank you John
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