One in three internet users between the ages of 12 and 15 say they saw "hate speech" online in the past year, according to Ofcom's latest survey of children's media habits.
It is the first time the UK regulator has posed a question about the topic in its annual study.
The NSPCC charity said the finding was "very worrying", adding such posts should not be tolerated.
Natasha MacBryde was a beautiful, clever girl hoping to be a vet or paediatrician, who seemed perfectly happy at school until a few months after she turned 15, when she suddenly wanted to dye her hair brown.
Her mother Jane discovered, over the next few weeks, that Tasha (as the family called her) had become the target of nasty messages from fellow pupils on Formspring, a website (which has since closed) where the senders could remain anonymous.
She was further upset at being rejected by a boy she liked. On the evening before Valentine's Day, she looked at Formspring one last time - with its latest, poisonous message - then slipped out of the house and walked to a nearby railway track. She was hit by a train.
Internet trolls who create derogatory hashtags or doctored images to humiliate others could face prosecution in England and Wales.
Inciting people to harass others online, known as virtual mobbing, could also result in court action, under new Crown Prosecution Service guidance.
The director of public prosecutions said it means the CPS would prosecute just as if offences occurred offline.
A mother who had her only child late in life caught her 15-year-old son sexting a girl in his class. The graphically saucy phone traffic was two-way. The boy was a virgin, although he and the girl, who was not, had unsuccessfully attempted intercourse.
For the mum, this was shockingly unfamiliar terrain. She thought she was acting in everybody’s best interests when she and her husband contacted the police, hoping they would explain the dangers of sexting to him.
'The first feature we’re introducing is a keyword moderation tool that anyone can use. Now, when you tap the gear icon on your profile, you’ll find a new Comments tool.
This feature lets you list words you consider offensive or inappropriate. Comments with these words will be hidden from your posts. You can choose your own list of words or use default words we’ve provided. This is in addition to the tools we’ve already developed such as swiping to delete comments, reporting inappropriate comments and blocking accounts.'
KADIZA Sultana, one of the three London schoolgirls who fled to Syria last year, was said to have been disillusioned with life in Isis territory when she was reportedly killed by a Russian airstrike. Kadiza, who was just 16 when she and her friends Shamima Begum and Amira Abase left their Bethnal Green homes, had been radicalised and groomed online into believing that life under Isis would be some kind of religious utopia.
Instead it led to an early death.
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