Well timed reminder given the past weeks discussions, that it’s already very simple for law enforcement to deal with criminal behaviour online, stemming from fake social media profiles, without a nation wide ban on creating anonymous profiles.
Remember this the next time politicians tries to limit your freedoms with the excuse of "safeguarding children online"
Catechist used fake profiles to lure boys into sending nudes
byu/WhatsHeBuilding inmalta
Posted by WhatsHeBuilding
9 Comments
Sorry but no. Anonymous profiles should stay, and be normalised once more. Police can always ip trace if they really want to anyway.
There’s always the pedo or terrorist argument to advocate for cancelling anonymity online or implementing dystopian systems mass surveillance. The freedom of choice to be anonymous might be one of the most valuable things we have. It’s quite crazy to me that there’s people who don’t understand this.
What were 13 year old boys doing on Facebook either way ? Why did they have so much un-monitored access ?
Also in this case, the perpetrator was still caught. So the problem actually wasn’t with the ability to trace back the criminal.
Overall however, it’s not that this isn’t an effective solution for certain problems, it’s actually more of an issue with the liberty that it erodes. It’s always going to be a balancing act, and in this case I think it’s a better idea for parents to ensure that their children are off of Social Media and actually put the fear of the internet into them *(don’t talk to strangers, don’t send images of yourself, etc)*.
Outlawing anonymity is the same as outlawing freedom of speech, and is a stepping stone to a dictatorship. Don’t be fooled by all this talk of “to protect the children”, the police can already investigate well enough who owns an online profile by just asking the platform (such as facebook in this case).
The solution isn’t removing freedom to be anonymous, but to teach internet safety. Just because you pass a law that is applicable only to Malta, it doesn’t protect anyone from the rest of the internet
Banning anonymous profiles won’t solve the issue. You’ll always have people misusing whatever technology or tools they can access. There needs to be more education on internet safety, being cautious online etc.
When we were younger, the internet was something new and personally speaking, I saw a lot of things online just browsing and exploring, that a kid shouldn’t have seen. Nowadays we know a lot more, and can guide younger internet users better.
Also, leaving 12-13 year olds unsupervised online is just reckless. The normalcy of having a phone at a young age also creates an issue.
Catholic church doing what it does best.
just to clarify – minimum age to use facebook is 13 although I also believe this social platform should be 18+
and re the banning of fake profiles, I obviously don’t agree – one of the dumbest suggestions ever in parliament – mela veru qedin in-north korea? As long as they are not hurting 3rd parties who cares if its a real profile or not? Ghal naqra nitfaw l-ID card profile…
the funny bit is when you have a legitimate profile with a display pic obviously not of myself – pretty fkn obvious pic its not me – and homophobes, patracists and the like after they start to lose an argument, will go, u’re a fake profile….i win – zfghkgh XD
daqt tghidilna x’hairstyles nistaw nuzaw, bhal tan-north korea lol
Sure, what’s you name buddy?