Latest news with #DavidTuffley
Herald Sun
27-06-2025
- Herald Sun
Kylie Lang on why social media has made the world a worse place
Remember when the sneakiest thing you could do on social media was to use a filter to enhance a photo and not tell anyone? Bung on a bit of Clarendon, Juno or Valencia and make your images pop. Then it became cool, even though some people clearly cheated, to use the hashtag #nofilter – as if you were really a closet photographic genius. Ah, Instagram, how tame you were back in the day – 2010, that is, a mere 15 years ago. Now, as social media platforms have multiplied so has the deceit they allow people to portray as true. And I'm talking about more than the 'look-at-me-and-my-fabulous-life-bet-you're-jealous' posts. Social media has become sinister and the minds of users have become sicker. You might say it's chicken and egg stuff – which came first? – but I'd wager that anti-social behaviour of the chronic kind we've been seeing recently is a direct result of these unregulated online platforms. The greed of profit-ravenous tech giants has decimated human decency. Bullying like never before, revenge porn, deepfake nudes and the online abuse of children including by other children are bordering on commonplace. But as those of us who recall life before social media rightly demand better responses – from our schools, our parents, our politicians and critically the tech behemoths – there is another degree of moral corruption going on. Let me give you two examples. When a young man allegedly brutally attacked a middle-aged bus driver last Friday evening at Brisbane's South Bank station, passengers were eager to film it. The distressing footage was then uploaded to social media. Did no passenger think to immediately go to the driver's aid? Why was their first thought, where's my phone? The lure of a twisted type of fame on social media is strong. We see it also when students are brawling on school grounds. Rather than break up fights, onlookers are hanging back and filming them. They're getting kicks out of another's suffering and using it to boost their social media engagement. Now to the case of a Queensland mother accused of torturing her baby for social media kudos. The 34-year-old was charged in January over allegedly drugging her infant to get clicks and money from the content she posted on TikTok. As if those allegations aren't horrendous enough, this week The Courier-Mail revealed a number of people have created copycat social media accounts. The fake accounts use the family's name and previously posted images and videos. Pathetic? You bet. David Tuffley, who lectures in applied ethics and cyber security at Griffith University, says there is 'a thriving black market' for TikTok accounts. The aim of these fakes, Dr Tuffley says, is to attract followers then monetise the accounts through advertising, soliciting donations or selling them on the black market. Staggering to think from October to December last year, TikTok stopped more than 10.47 billion fake likes on its content due to inauthentic engagement and fake accounts activity, according to Statista data. Stan Karanasios, a professor in information systems at the UQ Business School, says there is no way of knowing how many fake accounts exist but the motive is to 'piggyback' on a person's legitimacy to 'lure people into believing you are trustworthy and (to) engage in scams and malicious activities'. What a world we live in. I wish we could shut down social media and make phones dumb again. I wish TV shows like SeaChange and Seinfeld were being seen for the first time. I wish people would escape to the country and not whine about the Wi-Fi. But just as we can't turn back time, we have to be present to what's happening now. We cannot let ourselves be conditioned to accept heinous behaviour as the new norm simply because of the prevalence of it online. There are many education programs around social media use, positive parenting in the digital age and how to keep yourself safe online – but they are not enough. Until tech giants are properly held to account, people will continue to be pawns. Kylie Lang is Associate Editor of The Courier-Mail Originally published as Kylie Lang on why social media has made the world a worse place
ABC News
24-06-2025
- Business
- ABC News
Marathon popularity leaves runners susceptible to scammers
When Jess Iapella went to buy a resale ticket to the sold-out Gold Coast half marathon she thought she was internet savvy enough to avoid being fleeced by a scammer. Ms Iapella, a 36-year-old executive assistant on the Gold Coast, put out a call for a ticket on a marathon Facebook page that had 4,000 members. She received numerous offers and decided to buy from someone who appeared to be a genuine runner, with a profile picture of them wearing a race medal. Ms Iapella agreed to transfer half the money via PayID, but it soon became apparent there was no ticket. The popularity of the Gold Coast marathon has grown exponentially in recent years. Tickets for this year's half marathon, which cost up to $170, sold out in four hours, while the full marathon, priced at up to $215, sold out in four days. More than 10,000 people are on the waiting list, leaving many desperate to take part. David Tuffley, a cybersecurity expert from Griffith University, said scammers were looking to capitalise on people's fear of missing out. "There's been an upsurge in this kind of thing around the world, any major sporting event seems to attract this, where thousands of people are coming in," Dr Tuffley said. Like most scams, Dr Tuffley said there were red flags to look out for. "If the offer is well below what you would expect, that's the number one point. The second point is if there's a sense of urgency — and there is always a sense of urgency involved in these scams — they get people," he said. Dr Tuffley said people used to be able to spot scams by bad spelling or poor English, but now with the rise of AI helping scammers write copy, scams were harder to detect. Gold Coast Marathon organisers said they had worked to scam-proof the event, with the transfer of tickets done exclusively through the registration portal. While the marathon did not offer an official resale platform, Gold Coast Marathon CEO Ben Mannion said runners could transfer tickets and when done correctly through the portal no money changes hands between individuals. "We want to control the opportunity that people buy legitimate entries," he said. "Just like any event, whether it's a Taylor Swift concert or anything involving ticketing, you're going get scammers. "We want people to be diligent and be smart with what they do so it's really easy to contact us and we can talk them through the transfer process." Jess Iapella said when she reported the fake profile to Meta it was quickly taken down, but she thinks the tech giant should be doing more to protect users. "Couldn't they detect the profile earlier rather than later if they have knowledge that this Facebook profile is not legit and there are pictures taken from another runner?" she said. As for the marathon, she intended to try to run again next year — even though she would approach the event with less trust. "I'm definitely disappointed, but I'm definitely going to be watching it and maybe next year I'll be ready to run the full marathon," she said.
