The Initial Idea:

My initial idea for my project was surrounding Catfishing in particular. I was a victim of someone stealing my photos off my Instagram account this summer and creating a fake account using my content. After this happened, I started extensively researching whether or not Catfishing was illegal- its not.

So after having experienced all of this, I found it really interesting not only thinking about the legal side of what could happen if you are caught Catfishing someone, but thinking about ways that it could be prevented to begin with. That is where I came across the idea of online identity verification, specifically passport verification. This is where, in order to set up social media accounts, people must take a scan of their passport or form of identification- in order to verify that you were a real person. By doing this, people would then be able to have it on record, and if any account had to be investigated for either Catfishing or trolling- the culprit's real identity would be on file.

I have decided to create a 7 minute radio documentary, in the style of a radio 4 'seriously' podcast. I have already given my pitch for this project and feel confident in my ideas and am really looking forward to continuing my research and beginning the interview process.