Online vs. Face-to-face Relations

In today's technological environment, children are getting used to computers on an early stage. It is very common to see children under the age of 18 having their profiles on social networks like face-book, my-space and many more. These children use false profile pictures to be more attractive and sometimes lie about their country of residence. Therefore, online relationships can be dangerous. I personally think it is unethical for a person to misrepresent their identity, appearance and sexual orientation.  One reason is that, in a relationship trust is the key factor which keeps the relationship strong. When a person misrepresents their identity they are lying to others, this can lead to negative affects in future of that relationship. Another reason is that deception is more likely to occur in online relationships rather than face-to-face relationship. When we meet a person face-to-face, we know about their appearance, sexual orientation and factors that can lead us to trust them. But in online relationships we just have to trust a person through their profile, which can be false. In face-to-face relationships, a person can lie but we he or she cannot lie about their identity, physical appearance and sexual orientation compared to online relations. Therefore, there is a risk of false identity in online dating and this is the reason deception is more likely to occur in online relationships as compared to the face-to-face relations.