I never comment on anything that’s public – Facebook pages, websites, you name it. Why? Because I’m not a moron. I know that whatever I write can be taken out of context or misinterpreted by other morons, which could potentially end in something bad. Like, I dunno…someone calling up my parents to tell them I threatened to rape someone on Facebook. Not that I ever WOULD threaten to rape someone, but apparently there are idiots out there who enjoy throwing out threats like that on Alanah Pearce’s YouTube videos.
You see, Alanah is a Toys & Culture Editor at IGN Entertainment in San Francisco. Alanah is also an intelligent 22-year-old who has gotten tired of getting rape threats from shitheads on the Internet, and rather than feed into the trolls by responding she’s started reporting them to their parents. Most of the trolls are young boys – hence why they’re dumb enough to be writing out rape threats over the Internet. According to Daily Mail,
‘Everyone I’ve managed to identify that has sent me a rape threat has been a male, and a surprising amount of them have been young boys, but I don’t stop to ask them their age before banning or reporting their comments,’
Ms Pearce, who is originally from Brisbane, told Daily Mail Australia.
Often she’ll ban and ignore online trolls but, if she can, she’ll inform an authority figure.
She said it is important to give cyber-bullies real world consequences for their online actions.
‘For anyone who sends me any kind of threat on Facebook, I will go to their profile and try to find personal information,’ she said.
‘For young boys I usually look for parents or family listed on their profile, and then send them a screenshot of the abuse their son has sent me.
‘I’ve also contacted schools before if I’ve been unable to contact parents.
‘I think it’s an effective response to online harassment because it gives real world consequences to online actions.’
Alanah concludes by saying that “If you have the option to give someone real-world consequences for their actions you may be able to teach them not to do it again, but you should never respond to them directly, especially not online. They want attention, so if you give it to them they’re unlikely to go away.”
Preach it girl 🙌
[H/T Daily Mail]