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The Is An Internet Moral Panic Essay

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As technology surrounding the internet has grown there has a been a new movement to connect the world. Specifically, teens have become more inclined to socialize and connect with friends, family, and strangers through the internet. Teenagers are known for being vulnerable, naïve, having a vast desire to find acceptance with their peers or society and are obsessed with love. With the connection of the internet, social media, and teen it has created completely new moral panic; catfishing. According to, to Merriam-Webster catfishing is defined as an individual who creates a fake profile on a social networking site to deceive or manipulate others ("Catfish"). Primarily, those who catfish use their fake profiles to gain romantic relationships with other social network users. Teens began creating fake profiles through their instinct of wanting to fit in but, this led to teens catfishing to fulfill their dreams of finding acceptance. Catfishing is an internet moral panic because it is considered a social terror. The act of catfishing became a way for some teens to find acceptance but, parents feel that teens are not safe on social networking sites such as; Facebook because these deceptions can cause teens emotional and mental harm. Those constructing the moral panic continually scapegoated social network sites for the creation of catfishing and its side effects but, the true root cause of catfishing is teen’s inherent behavior. Catfishing was created by teens and the major

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