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After doing some research surrouding the legislation about Catfishing in the UK, I came accross Anna Rowe's profile. I reached out to her and explained to her what I was trying to create for my Multimedia Journalism project and she replied back almost immediately. As my first interview that I conducted, Anna really helped me to decide what direction I wanted to go in with the documentary that I was creating, and she was the one who gave me the idea to interview a Psychology professor, as I really wanted to understand the reasoning behind it.
Anna Rowe is a teacher from Kent, England and she was a victim of being Catfished- the act of being deceived by someone else online. Anna matched with 'Anthony' on Tinder, a dating website, and entered a 14 month relationship with a man who was not who he said he was.
Anna has since campaigned for the current laws surrounding Catfishing to be changed, and has set up a petition to support this.
Here, Anna tells her story:
There is very limited support in place for those who have been a victim of Catfishing, and the laws are a very 'grey area' surrounding what can be prosecuted and what can not.
The UK are currently considering a proposal to follow New South Wales legislation that makes sex by deception illegal, but it is yet to come into place.
In America, there is a programme called Catfish that deals with extreme versions of these cases happening, and there is a version coming to the UK. Anna is the first interview that is on the UK version of Catfish, and I think I was very lucky to conducted an interview with such a high profile and relevant candidate.