ABSTRACT
The Internet and related technological socio-affordances have allowed people to interact with others in a myriad of ways such as email, discussion forums, testimonials, image sharing, conferencing, and many others. Whilst there may be similarities between on- and offline communications such as information sharing and advice seeking, and taking time to develop relationships, technology allows people to present themselves differently to who they might be offline. In this chapter, we explore how people might present themselves online, how identities are co-constructed in these spaces, how they reveal their offline selves in online spaces, and deceive others. We discuss these features and the implications for people having the ability to remain anonymous, create fake identities, and exploit others, as, for example, with stealing images, grooming people, textual abuses, and other (dis)similar forms of DGSV. These are discussed in relation to perpetrators and viewers of DGSV.
