🙄The Wrath of Internet Trolls🙄

The internet used to be a safe In a study done by Varjas, Talley, Meyers, Parris, and Cutts1
place for children and teens they found that there are essentially two known sources of
to explore, play games, and motivation for cyberbullying. The first is an internal
educate themselves. While motivator, the most common one being a chain-link effect.
this can still be the case, there Let’s say John is a freshman in high school and is constantly
are many reasons parents are made fun of at school, when he goes home, he can redirect
also very cautious of the time these feelings of weakness anonymously to others on the
their kids are spending in the internet thus creating a circle of abuse.
virtual realm. It seems that as
time goes on children are There are also external motivators of cyberbullying such as
being more exposed to cyberbullying, also known as the non-confrontational factor along with their being no
internet trolling. Many of the experiences started out consequences. Many of the children using the internet are
harmless but have grown into kids using emboldened by the fact that they are not being controlled by
misogynistic terms and even sexist insults. When it any source and are able to say anything they feel.
comes to video gaming alone, there are threats and
insults mindlessly thrown around that are
inappropriate to the age groups they are directed
towards and insulting to those to whom they ridicule.
Teens are more likely to be desensitized to the insults
they are using because they can be made
anonymously and be physically and emotionally
removed from their victims. Almost as though there
is no cause and effect factor. When they can remove
themselves from the situation, they are able to gain a
certain confidence to be confrontational in a way
they wouldn’t be in person.
 An article by Jason Fagone also highlights an extreme case of
cyber harassment, a more intense form of trolling.3 One that
As time goes by, children are being more exposed to leads to SWAT banging on someone’s door and interrupting
the realities of internet trolling and are beginning to the lives of their entire family and life at home.
take part in the trolling at a younger age. Similar to
how studies done about violence being exposed to Cyberbullying and cyber-crime is hard to manage and
children at younger ages can cause them to grow up monitor because the internet is such a vast place. There have
being more desensitized to violence. This sort of been many attempts at creating a safer environment on the
exposure can cause long-term effects of internet, the chatrooms now have moderators and users must
disassociating behavior and not realizing the reality be careful from being banned. The real problem also begins
of consequences for their actions. with no one reporting the crimes they see; viewers can be as
much of a problem as perpetrators. In the article, Janet
Cyberbullying can start at any time and any age, but experience viewers were feeding into the perpetrators desire
it can progress from one site to any or all of them. to commit this cyber-crime.
Everyone should be worried about cyberbullying as
it can affect anyone using the internet and social In a perfect world, cyber-crime would be manageable by
media especially. There are efforts to stop this from moderators and would be reported by everyone exposed.
occurring as much as it has in the past, rules that However, having a universal system to regulate the verbiage
regulate forums and game usage. Parents can block used online as well as the personal information accessible
certain explicit content from being in their child’s through IP searches. There should always be a first and
grasp while browsing online. There’s still only so second type of verification system for users online, ones that
much that consumers can do to completely stop this cannot be forged. Email and phone verifications can be forged
from continuing to occur.2 through creating a burner account online and using prepaid
phones. The ability to make accounts, even multiple ones is
too easily accessible and is not keeping them off the internet.

1
Varjas, K., Talley, J., Meyers, J., Parris, L., & Cutts, H. (2010, August). High school students' perceptions of
motivations for cyberbullying: An exploratory study. Retrieved from
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2941365/
2
Kids on Social Media and Gaming. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://www.stopbullying.gov/cyberbullying/kids-on-
social-media-and-gaming/index.html
3
Fagone, J. (2015, November 24). The Serial Swatter. Retrieved from
https://www.nytimes.com/2015/11/29/magazine/the-serial-swatter.html?smid=pl-share