Talk About The Trolls

Hannah Smith should be out enjoying her summer holidays today. Instead she is known globally as the girl who hanged herself after reading horrible stuff online. Now the plan is to name and shame her attackers.
What if they are 15-year-old girls too, terrified of being exposed as the bullies they are? What about the site itself, should that be shut down? What about the trolls who targetted the Facebook page Hannah's grieving family put up, egging each other on  to post the most hateful remarks?
As parents we have to get a handle on this. Some of the trolls say it was this teenager's own fault if she allowed herself to be harmed by remarks made by total strangers. She was vulnerable. Millions are. Even the trolls, I suspect.
We have to convince our kids that the nastiness on the web is a fact of life. Switch off, shut down and talk to your family and friends. This virtual world harms in a very real way. It cuts deep. Not every child is strong enough to block it out. We need to talk to our kids. If this stuff is in their lives then we need to act, now, well before they do.