Can we talk about the Harassment, please?

[Westaway]

I don't think that works against, say, doxxing or hacking.

Okay

Also... Okay, someone sends you an insulting message. Great, you block them. You still got the insulting message. Maybe you can ignore it, but not everyone can.

Let's face is fellas, if you can't ignore a rude message from a 12 year old over the internet you're soft as fuck and will probably crumble after the first actual bad thing happens to you.

And now, let's take things up a level. Multiple people are harassing you. First it's, say, a dozen messages from a dozen or so people. You block each of them. But the messages keep coming, from new accounts, more people. What do you do? Lock down your profile? Block everything except for stuff you trust? Great, but things still got to the point where locking down your profile was the appropriate point. That can't feel good.

Yeah, keep blocking them or ignore them, or shut down your account, or literally walk away from the computer screen if you were so sheltered a band of heckling keyboard warriors bothers you.

And now they've found your email address. Now you've got to clean out your email inbox, and add a filter that sends the harassment straight into the bin. Your filter probably won't be perfect though, so important messages may get binned as well, and some of the harassment may still get through.

None of this is a big deal

And then someone posts your home address online. Complete with death threat. And you only hear about this from a friend, because you've just walked away from the internet.

Lmao, I seriously hope you realize that 90% of people on Facebook readily share their home address and that some tool on the internet saying he's going to kill you isn't an actual threat to your safety. I have literally given out my home address over Xbox Live challenging guys to fight me. You take the internet and the interactions that take place in it way too seriously.

There are people that have gone through all that. And they shouldn't have to. And blocking didn't help them.

Blocking is hardly a silver bullet.

Growing a pair would have helped them.

 

[The_Darkness]

SNIP

Great. You have a thick skin. Good for you. I did mention that not everyone does, right?

There have been job resignations in the face of online harassment. Mental breakdowns. Suicides. Are you going to say that those people for not simply didn't have a thick enough skin? Because that sounds suspiciously like victim blaming.

Given the choice between telling everyone that they just shouldn't feel the harassment, or trying to do something about the harassment, I'll pick trying to do something about the harassment every time.

 

[Westaway]

+
SNIP

Great. You have a thick skin. Good for you. I did mention that not everyone does, right?

There have been job resignations in the face of online harassment. Mental breakdowns. Suicides. Are you going to say that those people for not simply didn't have a thick enough skin? Because that sounds suspiciously like victim blaming.

Given the choice between telling everyone that they just shouldn't feel the harassment, or trying to do something about the harassment, I'll pick trying to do something about the harassment every time.

But I don't have a thick skin, I have a healthy amount. What I'm saying is that if you're so emotionally fragile that all it takes for you to have an emotional breakdown is some idiots heckling you on the internet, you were never going to make it far anyways.
Caring either way is a waste of time.