Some trolls are not concerned about hiding their intentions and will have outlandish names and ‘avatar’ – profile pictures. Their comments will be controversial and opinionated, and if you give them a reaction you could become their next target. If someone clearly does not want to be verified as a real person, you should ask yourself why and proceed with caution.
More experienced trolls may well appear as normal users with carefully created profiles. You might want to check out their previous posts and social media activity to see what sort of comments they’re making, or how verifiable their profile information is before connecting with and starting to communicate with them.
Seeing trolls on your social media accounts is much easier than on blogs or forums. You are in control of who you accept friend or connection requests from – and you can choose what level of access to give to your different friend or contact groups.
When you receive a friend request from someone you don’t know, check who else in your network knows that person. If you can’t verify who they are, you should consider restricting their access or ignoring the request completely.
You could be tracked by a troll or potential harasser from another website or social media platform that you have been using. This could be someone who wants to gain your confidence and find out more about you, so be careful what profile information you are giving away.
When down and out, I know I have powerful outlets to connect with and that’s the brilliant magic in Cybersmile. In this digital age, Cybersmile serves as a community where we can control not only the tone and tenor of our online conversation, but also help positively influence others so that such behaviour trickles down. This is why at least…Laura, Chicago, USA
