Teachers’ Notes
Trolling
Introduction
These resources are provided to support the teaching and learning of ethical, social, legal and moral issues within ICT. The materials provide an introduction to the main concepts and should be used in conjunction with other resources and sound classroom teaching.
The main purpose of these resources is to spark a discussion and develop a debate in the classroom about the ethical, social, legal and moral issues of emerging technologies.
Many of the resources are meant to be contentious and if used with discretion, enable pupils to explore their personal opinions, share their views with others, clarify their attitudes and help them reach their own moral and ethical conclusions.
Resources have been designed to be a short stimulus units which will take up little lesson time, but will generate responses from pupils.
Teaching guidance
General
These additional points may help your discussions or starter activities. The quick starter activities should take no longer than 10 minutes.
Trolls divert online discussions into non-productive, off-topic discussions. They pose as part of a community only to disrupt it. Trolling is anti-social behaviour.
Some of the techniques trolls use to accomplish their objectives are:
· pithy put-downs
· name-calling and insults
· attacks that try to negate a person’s opinion by alleging negatives about the person supporting it
· questioning other's motives
· emotional rants
· bullying and harassment
· completely off-topic posts
· posting inaccurate facts
· racist rants.
Why do people troll?
Experts and online discussions offer these reasons:
· attention and recognition, even if negative
· the emotional release of venting
· wielding the power to disrupt
· vandalism
· the thrill of breaking social conventions
· sabotaging groups the troll dislikes
· immaturity.
Many of us will have unintentionally trolled at one time or other. Perhaps we posted a message when in a bad mood or under stress! Or we posted hastily without reflection and consideration – many of us have written something at 3am that we might not have sent had we considered its impact fully.
A few web sites defeat trolls by posting only selected comments. Print newspapers have followed this model where the columnist selects only a few reader comments to which to reply. If you have ever posted comments on the BBC web site you will find evidence of trolling on nearly every comment board. The BBC has a strict policy regarding what is acceptable and what is not. You may want to look for yourself at the rules they observe for their “Have your say” section.
Many online communities informally police themselves to curtail trolls. The common maxim "Please don't feed the trolls" argues that if troll comments are ignored intentional trolls will leave and go where they provoke results.
Facebook and Google have argued that we should eliminate anonymity on the web. They cite trolling as the reason but their real motives may be commercial. The problem with eliminating anonymity is that its benefits outweigh the damage trolls do. Most people do not want their real name on every comment they ever post, which would then be available to every person, corporation, or government for the rest of their lives. Whistle-blowers and dissidents would be exposed and penalised. Destroying privacy is not a solution to trolling.
Some countries have legislated against trolling. In the U.K., section 127 of the Communications Act 2003 says it is an offence to send messages that are "grossly offensive or of an indecent, obscene or menacing character."
The police take trolling very seriously – if you look at the Case Studies and the example in the Fact File, many people have been and are being prosecuted for trolling.
The Bottom Line
Trolling isn't going away. Yet there are some good techniques to reduce trolling and its impact. Your ultimate action is to leave a trolled forum and participate in a community more to your liking.
Trolling is bullying on line! And as such should be treated in the same way as verbal bullying in school, the office or on the street.
And because trolling can be used to incite racism, we need to take it, in its extreme forms, very seriously indeed.
Using the Package
Toolbar Guidance
Page Turning
Click on arrows at bottom of screen to move between pages within a section.
Debate Screen Guidance
Weblinks in this unit
Fact File (ppt)
BBC News reports
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-kent-17900962
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-devon-16851007
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-14898564
External Links
These resources contain links that connect to external websites and documents. Links are provided to support and further exemplify the content of the unit. The inclusion of any link does not imply endorsement or approval of the linked website, its operator or its content, and Welsh Government is not responsible for the content of any linked website.