Fiona O'Loughlin (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I am happy to second this Bill. I commend Senator Chambers on her work on this. This follows on from her excellent Bill on stalking, which has now become legislation. It is important, as she said, that it is not merely seen as harassment but it is a specific type of behaviour and should be a specific type of offence. When we see the specifics are there, that is what makes good legislation.

Senator Chambers mentioned “The 2 Johnnies” and how they opened up the world of catfishing to many people who may not be interested in legislation or what goes on in this House. It breaks it down so that people understand the difficult situation people can find themselves in and all of the different consequences, be they emotional, psychological or financial. It reminds me that sometimes soap operas on our screens are good for showing what is happening in the world. There was, perhaps last year, an experience of catfishing where one actor pretended he was a woman and caught another guy. He did this on a revenge basis. We could clearly see how difficult a scenario this was for the victim. As Senator Chambers said, there are two victims. There is the victim whose identity has been stolen and the person who has been impacted is another victim.

I should also mention that among our Senators within this Chamber, we had a situation. I only became aware of it when I saw The Sunday Times newspaper article about two weeks ago, where Senator Clifford-Lee spoke about being catfished. Her photograph was put on another profile on a particular type of website. She acted. She went to the Garda straight away. I have spoken to her about it since and the reason she did that also was to encourage other victims in this type of situation to speak out. If your gut does not feel right about something, we need to speak out about it. We need clear legislation such as Senator Chambers outlined. It is an incredible situation when we realise that the legislation we have does not cover this specifically and people can get away with this within the courts.

Sometimes, late at night, when I arrive home from here and I am trying to switch off, I put on television and watch something. There was a programme last week based on fact. It was an Australian woman who was catfished, and she ended up in jail. She ended up completely broke and estranged from her family. It was a shocking situation. It was a film, but based on fact. All of these things are absolutely happening.

We need robust, fit-for-purpose legislation that deals with these fake online personas.We need that to protect innocent people, both those whose identities and physical features are being used and those who are being scammed. I am honoured to second the motion on the legislation. I will be very happy to see it go to the next Stage.