There are plenty of people who have been embarrassed by their parents on Facebook. But some guys were rightfully mortified after their mothers were told exactly what they said to one woman.
Australian video game reviewer Alanah Pearce contacted the mothers of young men after being trolled with offensive rape threats.
Pearce announced the troll takedown on her Twitter, revealing a conversation with an unidentified male. "Sometimes young boys on Facebook send me rape threats, so I've started telling their mothers," the November 28 tweet read.
Sometimes young boys on Facebook send me rape threats, so I've started telling their mothers. pic.twitter.com/0Cbs81eXiE
— Alanah Pearce (@Charalanahzard) November 28, 2014
"Hi Anna, I don't know you, but I was wondering if [blank] is your son? I have never spoken to him before, but he sent me a concerning message to my public Facebook page today that I was wondering if you might be interested in discussing with him," Pearce wrote in a Facebook message to one mother.
"Omg, little s**t," the mother replied. " IM SO SORRY. YES I WILL TALK TO HIM!"
The tweet was retweeted more than 38,000 times and favored over 60,000 times.
"A while ago, I realized that a lot of the people who send disgusting or overly sexual comments to me over the Internet aren't adult males," Pearce says. "It turns out that mostly they're young boys and the problem is they don't know any better, so responding to them rationally didn't resolve the situation. And it got to the point where their comments were starting to make me feel really uncomfortable."
@Luetin09 @Totalbiscuit Surprisingly, vast majority of people who have said sexually explicit things to me online have been super young boys
— Alanah Pearce (@Charalanahzard) November 29, 2014
Taking a stand against the trolling, Pearce contacted a total of four mothers, but only the mother above responded back.
@BennyOBrien @DrCurlytek The 3 others didn't reply. As far as I can tell, they didn't get/read my messages.
— Alanah Pearce (@Charalanahzard) November 28, 2014
The 21-year-old, who reviews games for local radio and television stations in Brisbane, Queensland, was able to track down the boys' mothers by just looking at their Facebook profiles.
@carrolljba @doncandon Super easy to do just by looking at their profiles, I've done it 4 times now (she was the first to reply, though).
— Alanah Pearce (@Charalanahzard) November 28, 2014
Pearce took the high road by not naming the boys, but began keeping track of the trolls who made inappropriate comments towards her last year.
@MuzzaFerguson @BernardKeane I will absolutely never do that. More online harassment is not a good solution to online harassment.
— Alanah Pearce (@Charalanahzard) November 30, 2014
Even though Pearce cannot alone change the way gamers talk to each other online, trying to create some accountability for what young boys say is a good start.
