kaycee nicole

[crazyeightz]

World Wide Web Of Lies

 

Kaycee Nicole was a vibrant teenager, whose internet diary chronicling her tragic fight with cancer kept a community of friends and well-wishers spellbound for years.

 

Itâs a shame then that she never existed â in fact, everything about Kaycee Nicole was the figment of one womanâs fevered imagination.

 

Science View looks at the ease with which any individual can construct a web of lies on the internet and how the innocent user can be protected from the webâs worst excesses.

 

To listen to the programme please click here

 

 

Researchers studying life on the internet have found that people are more likely to tell lies online than face-to-face. The potential for everyday people â not just con artists and professional scammers â to change their identities is staggering.

 

The internet offers immediate anonymity, which can be essential in some instances, such as when discussing political or cultural issues or dealing with delicate subjects, but it also means that can be used for personal, emotional or financial gain too.

 

The Kaycee Nicole Hoax

The Kaycee Nicole story was one of the most meticulous web hoaxes recorded to date.

 

On her very own web site, Living Colour, Kaycee Nicole wrote an online journal.

For several years, fellow internet diarists shared KayCee Nicole's pain as she

chronicled her struggle to survive the cancer consuming her body.

 

Even though they'd never met her, many mourned her passing when she finally lost the fight.

 

Imagine then, how shocked her online friends were to learn, shortly after her death was announced, that sheâd never actually existed.

 

The photographs of the pretty teenager adorning her web site were, in fact, pictures of a high school basketball star who was unaware of the scam and the journals had been written by one Debbie Swenson, a woman people believed to be KayCee's mother.

 

The hoax had spiraled out of proportion. More and more people offered their sympathy and Swenson was forced to come clean.

 

After two years of believing in Kaycee Nicole, internet mourners were left to debate the reality of the web and to nurse their broken hearts.

 

A message on the personal website of one person taken in by the hoax sums up the level of feeling:

 

 

âThis was a horrible hoax that broke my heart. How dare someone burden the hearts and minds of so many caring people?â

 

 

Authentication

The story of Kaycee Nicole is certainly unsettling and it highlights just how easy it is to deceive people online. So, how important is it to be wary of people we meet over the internet?

 

Protection from tricksters is essential, but not quite as easy as in the real world as Judith Donath, director of the sociable Media Research Group explains:

 

âIn the real world there is a single entity connected to a single body. Many of our ways of restraining people is by saying that, "You are not allowed in this building againâ, â

 

âOnline there is no inherent singularity to identity. If someone is so intent on creating different guises that's a very difficult thing to stop without creating complex systemsâ¦I think that one of the things that we will see over the next few years will be greater use of things such as authenticated signatures.â

 

Signatures are just way a person can authenticate who they are, documentation is another.

 

Digital certificates are increasingly being employed by financial institutions, but as broadcaster and web consultant Bill Thomson explains, they could soon be a prerequisite for chat room entry too:

 

âYou actually have to go to someoneâs office and sign a piece of paper and bring a photo and that can prove who you are online. We could see communities or chat rooms requiring that sort of verification before they let you join because these are places for real people.â

 

Online Personas

Advocates of internet relationships may believe that getting to know someone through sharing thoughts and feelings before revealing their physical identity is a positive thing, but such practise is open to abuse.

 

Some groups of people are bigger targets for infiltrators and deceivers than others. In chat roomsâ people can change gender, status, age and nationality at the click of a mouse. Paedophiles can become friendly youths and men can become women in ******* chat rooms with consummate ease.

 

Accounts of people who have fallen in love over the internet, only to discover that in real life the person is not who they claimed to be, fill newspapers and like the thousands of people, who believed in the Kaycee Nicole scam, the internet can leave people emotionally scarred.

 

The simplest way to prevent such pain and heartache is, as Bill Thomson outlines, to simply be on your guard:

 

âThe boundary between who people are and who people are online is blurred. Once it starts to matter to you who these people are, then itâs worth investigating a little further.â

 

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we are looking at this at school so i would like some people to comment on it please

[Dark Slipstream]

Big ass filler post = Moved to Off-Topic.

 

Another person fighting cancer, that's great. - I do care, but too many people get recognized for doing this, how about the scientists that look for the cure.

[.Slack♠]

carlislack.page.tl

My sis, no scam real s***. In the hospital for about 7 months and she has been in a bed for about 6/7.

[.MeLo♥]

Big ass filler post = Moved to Off-Topic.

 

Another person fighting cancer, that's great. - I do care, but too many people get recognized for doing this, how about the scientists that look for the cure.

 

You obviously didnt read this,

it isnt a girl fighting cancer, its someone making a girl up who had cancer

 

carlislack.page.tl

My sis, no scam real s***. In the hospital for about 7 months and she has been in a bed for about 6/7.

 

And sorry to hear that slack

:[

<3

[subs_55]

To listen to the programme please click here

 

lulz

 

and to teh slippy,

 

it isnt a filler post, we were told in school to find a place on the internet to discuss this topic, so before deaming it a "big ass filler post" you could read at least a bit off it. aside from that though i this does belong in off topic, just the lack of respect on your part bothers me and shouldn't occur from any staff let alone a sub-admin.

[Slidell]

no way in hell I'm reading that.

[crazyeightz]

Big ass filler post = Moved to Off-Topic.

 

Another person fighting cancer, that's great. - I do care, but too many people get recognized for doing this, how about the scientists that look for the cure.

 

ok. so did you even read the god dam post? it is NOT!!! just another person fighting cancer SHE IS A SCAM. a made up character. figment of peoples imagination... so shut your god dam mouth with "big ass filler post" maybe you should read it and post something thoughtful not just something you read in the first couple sentences expecially since you are sub-admin.

 

 

carlislack.page.tl

My sis, no scam real s***. In the hospital for about 7 months and she has been in a bed for about 6/7.

 

i am sorry bout your sis man. i lost my grandma to cancer and am losing a really great friend to cancer.

 

and thank you subs. means alot bro.

 

and i think this does belong in general discussion because it is a topic i brought forward to have an actual discussion on. it shouldnt be in the off topic section to be ignored. because last time i checked THIS IS AN ISSUE! not ********. there is topics still in general discussion about CATS. BLOODY CATS! dude i got nothing against you or your cat it just bugs me that this got moved here

Edited February 24, 2009 by crazyeightz

[Curtis]

Filler post?

 

Read the post DSS, stop being so professional your just pissing everyone off.

 

Yeah that's some creepy s***, people will beilve anything.