Have you ever been effected by a troll?

I am not referring to the little rubber dolls with bright hair that you may have owned  in the 60's, I personally had lots all with different colour hair, but I digress!

I am talking about trolls who trawl the internet. The term troll describes someone who gets pleasure out of writing defamatory comments on online forums, blogs, all forms of social networking.

The troll will join an online forum etc under an assumed name and will make personal and untrue comments about the person who has posted.They can become vicious in their attack.

I myself have been on the receiving end of this abhorrent behaviour as have others I know.

 I often wonder if we met these people face to face how they would behave, would they start being orally abusive. I doubt it, it is the anonymity of the internet that enables them to write such horrendous remarks. They are answerable to no-one.

 Are these people trouble makers in real life?

 At present the law says that the website operator is liable for everything that appears on their site.

 Of course what we might consider to be inflammatory or untrue may not be considered to be so by the website operators.

 Online communication is here to stay, and millions of us are involved in it, 'talking' to people from all over the world in an instant, 'friends' we make online is an amazing thing  to allow users to 'talk' freely is ok, but I do think that there is a need for moderation.

 Many people are being hurt by mindless people who seem to delight in seeing people suffer.

 The majority of users are thoughtful, sensitive and valued members of the internet, they need to be protected.