Trolls don't just live under the bridge ...

TV presenter Charlotte Dawson, 47, who was found dead in her Sydney apartment this week.

THE suicide of TV presenter Charlotte Dawson is a reminder of how viciously two-faced an online audience can be.

Her death has come after a series of misfortunes and hardships that a person, enduring depression, might find difficult to withstand.

But there is absolutely no limit to how nasty cyberbullying can get - especially if you try and confront it or engage with it.

It's almost nauseating to read about the "flood" of tributes and regret appeared on Twitter and social media, when it wasn't that long ago Dawson was weathering savage attacks by online trolls, sending her to hospital for emergency treatment.

What's extraordinary is that people will, online, go to an extreme beyond the reality of "traditional" insults, because a troll is safe from harm. It's cowardly, but there it is.

Many of us get involved in an online group which is safe. Some of us join groups that are moderated, such as those maintained by professional groups. The Kiwi Journalists Association is a good example, in that it manages to restrain its members to proper, reasoned discourse - playing the ball, not the person, in other words.

But there are many other forums where people are waiting like attack dogs, dying for an excuse to use the most vile phrases. It's like dropping a bomb. They live for the effect they cause. They want to see how far the ripples of their cleverly-worded put-down will go. It's addictive.

The Times-Age is proud of its online audience and the degree of moderation the posters (mostly) show in their discourse, and we're lucky in that. But sometimes there's "flaming", the online word for deliberately provocative behaviour. Sometimes there's hatespeak. Sometimes there's condemnation out of all proportion.

As a newspaper, spirited discussion from an online audience, even anger, is part of the game. We don't engage with it, but simply let it sit. It doesn't hurt us.

When you're consumed with self-doubt, it's a vulnerability an online audience will exploit. The tragedy is not realising that "trolls" live up to their name: emotionally deformed dysfunctional human beings who should be laughed at and ignored, not listened to.