Fake Profiles and Social Bots Explained

It’s often difficult for children to grasp that – in the online world – not everyone is really who they claim to be. Some individuals go to great lengths and spend large amounts of time creating believable fake accounts to convince people that they are someone else. Sometimes, this is simply for their own amusement; on other occasions it has a more sinister purpose, such as grooming or exploitation. Some fake profiles, meanwhile, aren’t operated by a real person at all, but by artificial intelligence ‘bots’ which are designed to emulate human behaviour online. This short video gives you the basics on these troubling online phenomena.