Title of the Essay, Author, and Date

D igital Kidnapping- A new kind of Identity theft by Nikki Williams (September 2, 2015)

Title of the Reflection

D igital Kidnapping

First Impression

A n essay about how identity theft can now be done digitally and the reasons behind on why they do it.

Quote

“They’re going to do this because perhaps they really are a little envious and they would like that beautiful child to be their own.”

Reflection Paper

Digital kidnapping?  For real?  These different “cybercrimes” that are actually present in the social media portals are getting to my nerves, nevertheless, this is actually good since we could also take good care of our “identity’ on line in order to keep it private and safe.

It’s pretty strange when people used your photo and pretend that it’s theirs. It’s creepy when it’s not only one photo a total stranger is using but several different one’s from an on line site where you posted it. Some psychologist says that the main purpose of these so-called thieves are actually provoked by an “envy” mind set. But some psychologist says that it’s because of some personal fulfilment or sexual gratification. Though the owner of those photos weren’t exactly exploiting themselves, the photos in many cases have been re-contextualize to play out a dark fantasy.

However, these recent cases of digital kidnapping didn’t involve role-playing some would take photos of children to pretend that it’s theirs. Now whose fault is this? Is it these thieves fault or these careless parents unwittingly posting or should I say “exposing” their children’s identity.

Social media is indeed a dangerous unknown world, it’s like a ghetto filled with lurking criminals that are hiding behind the dark side of the computer world. The thing is we’d just need to be a little private with our life. Social media had been the other side of the real world, you can never choose which audience you would actually let to discern your personal data. But you can always choose which data to share on line. But when some of your “private information” is being stole, you can no longer take back what’s done. You can always logged off but you can never deny the fact that some parts of you have been exposed. Quit using Facebook, instagram, twitter, as if it’s your personal diary. Remember, you are now attracting predators.

5 things that I've learned

1. Digital kidnappers take screen shots of pictures posted on social media, blogs, and other online sites and use them for different activities.

2. Psychologists theorize that many of these players are teens and tweens from less-than-optimal home situations who are fantasizing about having the perfect family. “They’re going to do this maybe because they’re bored, they’re going to do this maybe because maybe they want some attention,” Psychologist said. “They’re going to do this because perhaps they really are a little envious and they would like that beautiful child to be their own.”

3. There is a privacy app, such as Kidslink, that allows parents to determine who sees their photos across social media programs.

4. There are also apps that will watermark your images to deter would-be photo borrowers.

5. Do a reverse image search on your photos. You can use a site like TinEye that offers this service for free, or you can drag an image from your computer into the search box on Google Chrome or Firefox to reverse search if you want to see  if any of them are being used without your permission.

5 integrative questions

1. Why our government is not acting a Law about the digital kidnappers?

2. What could it be the effect if our society can immediately address the concerns of these affected people? If only they can be medically treated immediately.

3. Where and how are we going to use this app?

4. Why do we need to put this app if facebook or twitter can have the protection to the users?

5. What will happen to us if we do not have this app to use in order to protect us?