This comes after the issue of 'trolling' was brought sharply into focus by Sean Duffy, who was jailed for 18 weeks after he posted abusive messages on social networking sites about Natasha MacBryde, a teenager who committed suicide.
Alan Stevens, media consultant at MediaCoach, explained that the trend differs from cyber-bullying in that "trolls are usually anonymous".
"You might argue that the internet is a place for free speech, but on the other hand there are responsibilities that come with freedoms as well ... I don't think it's acceptable in any form at all," he remarked.
Prohibiting anonymous posting online as a solution would ultimately be difficult to achieve, according to Mr Stevens, who said that it is instead better to "make people aware of the effect they're having".
Posted by Simon Jones
