There is lots of talk about social media trolls. There is no easy way to completely stopping trolling, but here are a couple of easy ways to stop a lot of it.

Firstly, all social media accounts must be made subscription only, with a nominal monthly fee of say £1. That way each account must be linked to either a valid credit or debit card and therefore the account owner can then be traced, if needed.

The money raised from these fees can then be used to improve monitoring of posts. Also a system of fines could be introduced for trolling or abusive posting. How would most parents react to a couple of £50 fines appearing on their credit cards!

Secondly, social media sites should stop anybody just setting up account and posting straight away, possibly with a seven-day cooling off period before somebody can post.

All posts should be manually monitored on new accounts, initially with time delays and as that person’s posting profile is built up. These restrictions could then be relaxed as they become established as a responsible poster

Nothing can stop all abusive posting of social media, but these two measures which I believe could easily reduce casual trolling or abusive posting.

Michael Albin