I was talking to a friend last night. He told me that his children enjoyed playing Minecraft but he was worried about the potential from strangers entering the Minecraft world. So as a good parent might, he gathered a supportive group of parents and set up a private Minecraft world on a designated server. There were 12 player licenses so good school-friends of his children filled these slots as players. For the first month all went well. Industrious Minecraft communities emerged and collaborated with each other. By the second month, however, trouble emerged. Worlds created by individual players found themselves subject to overnight attacks with pixelated TNT bombs. Hours of work was destroyed anonymously in seconds.

At the same time, other school friends who were not part of the private Minecraft world began picking on the select group. There were bullying and taunting incidents. By the third month, the parent closed down the server. The experiment was over. He described it as being like a re-run of "Lord of The Flies"

This experience would have made a great research thesis. It also highlights the problem of anonymity, the internet and social media. Everybody has heard of trolls - e-folks who join forums and the like with the sole purpose of offending. Faceless and nameless, they are free to indulge whatever dark fantasy or nasty inclination they like. They thrive on hurting and outraging. It is much harder to do this is the real world, for fear of social ostracism.

I could proffer any number of theories on the psychology of this kind of person, but I won't. Here is a Minecraft pixelate instead.