Several years ago, I embarked on writing a novel, but before I did that, I spent the best part of four years developing the four main characters. One of the things I wanted to do was to discover their real voices so I created social media profiles for each of them so they could interact with the real world. One of the characters, a needy and vulnerable 19 year old girl, was able to strike up a number of close relationships (as close as they can be online) and she was absolutely convincing in terms of images and reasons why not to show her identity (she even had a reason to hide her name) nor make a live call.

One thing that I discovered during this time is that there are a huge number of men online who are absolutely disgusting and post the unpostable and especially in DMs and make all kinds of completely inappropriate demands that are demeaning and humiliating. One of the safeguards that I employed was the usage of two of my other characters to slap down any inappropriateness by being harsh and down to earth and calling it out for what it was. This too was part of their character development. If I was ambivalent to #MeToo before I was now completely convinced!

Anyway, back to my point

Because I was meticulous in my research I not only found their voices, but also created an incredible level of consistency and knew how each of the characters would react in any given situation. For the purpose of the novel I had to add a fifth character but that wasn't so difficult after previously creating four others.

To be absolutely clear, I never asked for nor expected anything nor showered those I was interacting with with any expressions of emotion to raise their expectations.

But then something completely unexpected happened...

One online relationship that I had been cultivating suddenly became much more serious. While I was playing the role of a 19-year-old girl, and again I emphasise purely for character development purposes, he was in his early 70s. This actually fed into my character’s “naivety” but in the real world what the hell is an older man doing sniffing around such a young girl?!?

In many ways he viewed himself as a mentor and as part of that, he wanted to offer my primary character financial support. This was something I never asked for or wanted. He wanted to send money, primarily through Western Union, which of course I never picked up. I clearly said on many occasions that I didn’t want or need his money in the persona of one of my characters. However, he pushed and pushed to the point where I was backed into a corner (admittedly of my own making) where I had to either blow my cover or accept his generosity, which came in the form of “educational sponsorship” payable through PayPal.

As much as possible, I did my best to pay him back, for example at Christmas or on his birthday. The whole point was research and not to profit, but inevitably I did make some money from him.

As it turns out, despite the veneer of niceness, he was indeed a sleazy individual and he cut contact with me with a text message that said the police had seized his computers and devices. I was actually grateful that he severed the contact and later I discovered that he was convicted for what he claimed to be a single image on his laptop that somebody else has sent him as an attachment.

While I had ensured that my creation(s) was of adult status and in full control of her mind it did later make me wonder about who else he had been messaging and…

The thought makes me shudder.

And now you know exactly why I know how seedy and dangerous the internet can be.

Treat this as a cautionary tale. Protect your yourself and especially your young ones and as always stay safe and well my friends.