NYT and the Kaycee Nicole Hoax

Why the Kaycee Nicole hoax story is important: (1) The length of time that this fake person existed, actively, on the Net: TWO YEARS. (2) The broad community, multiple sites, and numerous Net-savvy people who "knew" this fake person. (3)The use by The New York Times of this FAKE PERSON as a real source -- quoted at length in a NYT story and assumed to be real, a real person, when she never was.

What this proves: You can never, ever be sure that a person you "know" online is a real person unless you have met him or her face-to-face. Talking on the phone is not proof; at least two people spoke on the phone with the fake Kaycee, according to the NYT story on May 31, 2001 (linked above).

The extent of the Times's error is shown in the August 10, 2000, story by Lisa Guernsey, "For the New College B.M.O.C., 'M' Is for 'Machine'" (Thursday, Late Edition, Final; Section G, Circuits; p. 7, col. 1; retrieved from Lexis-Nexis Academic Universe on May 29, 2001):

"Kaycee Swenson, a high school senior in Wichita, Kan., who took several courses at her local college last year, said she talked to people online every day, most of whom were not at her campus. But she said she also hung out with friends in the physical world, listening to music and playing basketball. 'You have to balance it,' she said.

"This fall, she will enroll full time at the University of California at San Diego, and she plans to take a new computer with her, even though she already has one equipped with a Pentium II processor. 'It's fast,' she said, 'but not fast enough.'

"In fact, she said, when she talks to her mother about what she took to college decades ago, she cannot believe what students had to put up with. 'She thought it was great,' Ms. Swenson said, 'that she was able to take a calculator to college or a cassette player to tape lectures.' And when her mother said she had to stand in line to register for classes and to wait for professors to open their offices, she said she could hardly imagine it. 'I laugh at those things,' Ms. Swenson said, 'but I'm sure it wasn't fun, you know?'" (Quoted from the August 10, 2000, New York Times story cited above.)