The ugly and often hurtful comments of trolls are increasing in number, according to the scholars who study online incivility. The ease of posting anonymous comments on blogs and social media sites such as Twitter and Facebook allows trolls to have a larger presence on the Internet now more than ever. Scholars note that one of the primary motivations of trolling is to titillate other trolls. This sets up one of the central difficulties in confronting trolling: Shedding light on trolling may only encourage it.
What advice can you give your kids when they encounter these kinds of folks online? Ignore and disconnect for a while seems to be the only solution. Robin William’s daughter Zelda, who was recently hounded by trolls, tried to confront those tormenting her but found that only whipped the trolls into a bigger frenzy. Admitting defeat she decided to disconnect rather than worry about what she might find on her Twitter account next.
Dr. Whiney Phillips, a lecturer at Humboldt State University and the author of “This Is Why We Can’t Have Nice Things,” a forthcoming book about her years of studying bad behavior online, notes “It’s not a question of whether or not we’re winning the war on trolling, but whether we’re winning the war on misogyny, or racism, and ableism and all this other stuff. Trolling is just a symptom of those bigger problems.”