top of page
Writer's pictureJames Mills

Why Online Trolling Is Killing Our Children And What We Can Do About It

Updated: Feb 7, 2023

When our children ought to be inspired and excited about their futures, many are losing hope because of 24/7 online abuse. Whether we are parents or not, we all have a responsibility to ensure our children are protected online and offline.


Image courtesy of pxfuel.com

By James Mills, Lighthouse Global Associate PartnerĀ 


I've decided to write about the tragic reality that we have increasing numbers of children and young people attempting to take their lives because of online trolling. I've decided to share a personal account of my experiences with bullying with the expectation that this reaches those who have also developed an 'irrational inferiority' but want to overcome that in order to be able to help vulnerable children stand up for themselves. Please pass this on to those you feel genuinely care about this issue and want to be part of the solution...


The Reality of Suicide In Our Children & Young People

The British Journal of Psychiatry published a study in November 2020 revealing that 7% of UK children have attempted suicide by the age of 17ā€¦ yes, you read that right, 7%! To make that more real for you, thatā€™s the rough equivalent of two children in EVERY single UK classroom in Year 12. When I read that I was personally shocked, although I was sadly not surprised given what Iā€™ve been learning over the last 16 years about the reality of the challenges facing our young people and how they are affected. This has caused me to also reflect on my own personal experiences growing up and to empathise as to how this statistic is even possible. I wanted to share this with those who genuinely care about children as a whole AND want to be part of the solution to do something rather than be a passive observer. These are big problems and as someone who worked for leading charities with schools for 7 years, I felt like the difference I was making was minimal and the problems seem to be getting worse rather than better.


Recently myself and members of the team at Lighthouse Global have heard examples of children as young as 5 years old having suicidal thoughts from teaching professionals in schools. Behind these statistics are young, innocent children, full of potential with their whole life ahead of them wanting instead to take their own life. Then we have freshers at top universities deciding that the pressure of life is too much for them, that ending it all is a more favourable option than reaching out for help and working through whatever personal challenges theyā€™re facing. Social scientists have stated that millennials are the most infantilised, fragile generation to date and they are killing themselves hand over fist as a result. Does that surprise or shock you?


When I ask people whether humanity is getting better or worse, they often say better. They cite developments in technology or the fact that we can talk more openly about issues like racism, sexuality or the destruction of the environmentā€¦. YET the fact that our children see increasingly less value, meaning, reason and purpose in their lives, in their futures is something that rarely gets mentioned. Itā€™s a BIG elephant in the room that so many of us (understandably) donā€™t even want to know is happening, talk about, let alone take responsibility for and do something about. ā€œEveryoneā€™s doing their bitā€, ā€œpeople are busyā€, ā€œthere needs to be more funding for XYZā€, ā€œwhat can I do?ā€ā€¦ these are the statements that very subtly abscond our responsibility to ensure we are doing our best to prepare the next generation for the future. I know that because Iā€™ve used my fair share of such statements over my life!


Iā€™m not exaggerating things as though itā€™s a problem ā€˜out thereā€™; a number of close friends and business partners have not just contemplated suicide, but have actually attempted to take their own lives for various reasons. And thatā€™s before I even get to those I know indirectly through others. We can read or hear that suicide is the biggest killer of males under the age of 45, but what do we do with that? Do we feel disempowered or do we come together with others who genuinely care to actually do something about the silent, but very real, pandemic thatā€™s extinguishing more lives than COVID-19?


My Personal Battles With Bullying & Suicide

Reflecting personally on this is humbling, as someone who has also contemplated suicide as a young person in my teens and twenties. I never reached thresholdā€¦ things werenā€™t desperate enough to follow through on these thoughts and frankly speaking, the motives for me considering suicide were mostly attention-seeking. From my personal experience suicidal thoughts were very subtle and fleeting; ā€œWhat if I took this knife and put it into my stomach?ā€ whilst in the kitchen, ā€œJust steering suddenly to the right will cause a head-on collisionā€ whilst driving, ā€œWhat if I just jumped now?ā€ when stood at the top of a high building and ā€œWhat would people say at my funeral if I killed myself now?ā€


This was all happening inside my soul despite ticking the boxes of life; a pretty-much straight ā€˜Aā€™ student with a degree from a top university, speaker of foreign languages, well-travelled and blue-chip companies on my CV before Iā€™d turned 23. Why would I even feel that way? It makes no sense, right? Iā€™d done all my teachers and family had asked of me after all.


However, these surface-level achievements covered over the darkened reality at the core of my soul; emotionally scarred by my parentsā€™ failed marriage and emotionally weakened to the point where I couldnā€™t socialise with any level of confidence. Academic success was my escape route, to avoid causing more chaos at home and so I worked like a trojan to excel academically. I had no other option, I was pushed about at school and wouldā€™ve had no confidence or social ability to find work after school. Some would argue what I faced was banter, but as a sensitive soul I couldnā€™t handle myself when I had mates call me a wimp, steal sweets, push me about, make cutting remarks or draw pictures of scenarios that depicted my death. I dreaded those 15 minutes of registration time at the start of the school day in case I was targeted with something my way - trying to avoid being the centre of any attention and hide in the shadows where I could. This is a demon I am still wrestling with today as someone in my forties and I have to, because if I donā€™t, I play small and my ability to help others face their own demons (internal and external) is limited.


I remember aged 12 or 13 one morning, having a cutting comment that was the straw that broke the camelā€™s back and it was too much for me to deal with. So I tried to cry to escape (the sad face without the tears, because boys donā€™t cry, right?). A mate who was one of the perpetrators suddenly became sympathetic and accompanied me to reception as I tried to get out of school; blaming an argument at home on the cause of my distress because I feared admitting my true weakness in front of my peers. I was never taught how to stand up for myself - sympathy-seeking was a last-resort, but risky tactic for me as a male. On this occasion, the risk paid off and temporarily took away the symptomatic pain, but the chronic underlying issues were not addressed. It was through keeping my head down and dogged persistence that I got through years of torment to get to university where things seemed to become easier because of having a little more control over who I spent my time with and what I did.


That was my experience back in the 80s and 90s, but now we have the worldwide web and bullying has moved from offline 9am-3pm 5 days a week to online 24/7. And so now many of our sensitive children are a thousand times more vulnerable than I was as a child. The pandemic and subsequent lockdown have escalated things even further on top of online trolling via social media.


How Online Trolling Is Killing Our ChildrenĀ 

One experience I was told recently highlights how it plays out todayā€¦ After the Euro 2020 final a teenage girl, aged 13 wrote a slightly racist comment online about the missed penalties by England players. It lacked maturity and respect, but what then happened is this girl was subsequently hounded online for what sheā€™d written. She was met with almighty vitriol online by so-called ā€˜adultsā€™ and children alike. Word got out at the girlā€™s school and the online abuse turned to offline, in-person abuse was directed at her with the limited ability to defend herself. One week later this all got too much and after returning from a day of facing a barrage of hatred she arrived home, picked up the dog lead, went to her room, turned up the stereo and proceeded to hang herself. Her dad responded to her subsequent cry for help and tried to save her, but it was too late. She breathed her last breaths in the ambulance on the way to A&E. I welled up when hearing this because yet another life was unnecessarily lostā€¦ a 13-year-old girl pushed to suicide because of a foolish comment she made online.


Her death would be logged as suicide, but the cause was online trolling. Thatā€™s right, online trolling is KILLING our children. And this is learnt from somewhereā€¦ itā€™s not a healthy and natural way for an innocent child to behave. So where do they learn it? They learn it from the way that so-called adults treat each other and even their own children as if itā€™s an accepted part of human behaviour. Donā€™t believe me? Check out the anger-fuelled debates online, the vile criticism that high-profile people receive on mass. We see outwardly-successful grown-ups kill themselves because of such criticism, so how can we expect innocent children to handle this? Part of the work that I and we have been doing at Lighthouse is learning whatā€™s at the root of online trolling and how to deal with it.


And where does online trolling originate? In one word; narcissism! The self-obsession, the feeling of self-importance, the desire to break others down and gain significance at the expense of others. Narcissism comes in many shapes and formsā€¦ at Lighthouse weā€™ve seen how it is a significant reason why conscientious people arenā€™t able to make the difference they want to make in their lives. Weā€™ve even seen families and so-called friends sabotage someoneā€™s progress because of the narcissism present; for instance, when a passive person stops being passive, itā€™s often met with resistance! It could be gossiping behind the back, cynical questions, patronising expressions of concern, cutting remarks or even anonymous trolling online with the intention to break down. Sadly we see many so-called adults indulging in online (and offline) trolling because of their narcissism and children are learning from them.


As I write this, I am involved in documenting a real-life situation of online abuse as we consult with leading professionals on learning how best to handle such scenarios and help others to do the same. To this I will add that only now in my early forties am I learning how to stand up for myself. Iā€™ve recently come to see how there have even been people in my own family bullying me without me realising. Thatā€™s been an incredibly bitter pill to swallow!


If Youā€™re Not Part of The Solution, Then We Need To Find Those Who Want To Be!

So, where do we go from here? Myself and the team at Lighthouse Global have decided that enough is enough and that we need to bring together the genuinely caring individuals who no longer want to stand by and do nothing. We need more highly-influential and resourceful benefactors capable of investing the love, care, wisdom and resources required to ensure children are protected from online abuse. We canā€™t pretend this will magically go away, think that governments and charities have it in hand or that itā€™s now too big to do something about. We need to empower sensitive children and their parents to be able to face online trolling head on and stop these human crimes from ending more lives.

As someone who spent a number of years working in the charity sector Iā€™ve seen firsthand that governments and charities are far too stretched and bureaucratic to solve these issues; we need to find alternative solutions and we need to find them fast. Iā€™ve invested the last 12 years of my life; significant amounts of time, money and effort to face my own personal demons. Iā€™ve done this because Iā€™ve felt the need for me to become someone whoā€™s capable of helping others with their personal challenges. At the same time I want to be doing something about the issue of online abuse and other issues close to my heart. In fact at times Iā€™ve even been criticised for doing thisā€¦ this is the world we live in! The significant majority of people fear looking at themselves, to swallow bitter pills and face realityā€¦ I say this out of compassion, I was very much one of those people until I realised I couldnā€™t keep running away from my problems.


Iā€™ve shared my journey not for sympathy, but for reassurance to those who have battled with bullying for their whole lives and want to address that. This is the power of combining mentoring, coaching and counsellingā€¦ Iā€™ve seen myself and committed people around me transform because of it; when theyā€™ve been prepared to do what it takes to be the best they can be as a genuinely loving, caring and empathic person who also has fortitude in times of adversity. As a heads up itā€™s not for the faint-hearted; genuine transformation is far too romanticised and thatā€™s part of the reason why the self-help industry has a tainted image as people are sold on quick-fix solutionsā€¦.


If youā€™d like to develop yourself through investing in developing your leadership and your entrepreneurial capabilities through developing your ability to stand for something and to be someone who can be part of the solution rather than passively read the headlines of these tragedies, then Iā€™d love to hear from you.


How to take action...

For more on how you can receive the mentoring, coaching and counselling to overcome impacts of the bullying (past and present) AND be able to able to help others (especially children), please register your interest on the Lighthouse Global site:Ā Mentoring & Coaching with Lighthouse Global.


If you or anyone you know has been a victim of bullying or online trolling and would value support, then go to our Parent Against Trolls page (introduced by Paul S. Waugh in the video below).



176 views7 comments

7 Comments


Sukh Singh
Sukh Singh
Feb 19, 2022

Thank you so much James for diving into what you personally experienced, bless that young girl I pray she is at peace now, but millions more are not right now. Thank you for this, I and we cannot turn a blind eye to children suffering in silence. We need community more than ever.

Like

duanebiggerstaff8
Jan 26, 2022

Thank you for this article James. This really does need highlighting and acting upon. As a father of a child who was trolled and bullied, I was very disappointed to say the least if not incensed, with the amount of support offered by the school to the point of feeling that it was swept under the carpet. There needs to be regulation and it needs to be enforced. I am a proud member of Parents Against Trolls & Trolling (PATT) an initiative created by Lighthouse International as I have witnessed first hand the effects of this unacceptable behaviour.

Like

jatindersingh4
jatindersingh4
Jan 26, 2022

Hi James - thanks for sharing the reality of how bad trolling is for children and your own experience. It was harrowing to read about your suicidal thought and what makes it worse is that Iā€™m sure millions of children have had such thoughts at least once. We live in a world with so much money and materials but very little love.

Like

Diane Cubitt
Diane Cubitt
Jan 24, 2022

The examples of what trolling is doing to our children is horrific, it is beyond the level of abuse. I get so angry and so outraged hearing about children that have committed suicide because of bullying. Young boys and girls, not even having a chance to start to learn about life, instead they are taking theirs. Thank you for sharing this James and for sharing your personal experience of trolling, a very needed article.

Like

Gillian Watson
Gillian Watson
Jan 14, 2022

This is heartbreaking to know there are children right now who don't see any other way for their future and that this is even something they know about, never mind are acting on and following through with.

Unfortunately, I can relate to seeing and experiencing that behaviour you shared about some people narcissistically being intent on breaking others down. And I'm pretty sure everyone has at least one example of this in their lives. And if we don't have the right strength of character, foundation or ability to respond, then we will continue to see these statistics rise.


Thank you for bringing it into the light, and for sharing so personally. If we don't know what is happening, it's tooā€¦

Like

Subscribe to our Newsletter - Don't miss out on new articles!

Thanks for subscribing to our Lighthouse Community Newsletter!

bottom of page