Hopefully, as a kid blogger, you won’t have too many nasty comments to deal with. People, at least the decent ones, are generally a bit nicer when you’re a child.

But from time to time you may find that an unpleasant comment pops up on your blog. There are lots of reasons why this might happen:

• Maybe the commenter didn’t realise that you’re a kid
• Or they did realise, and are too mean or stupid to hold back. Some people’s sense of what’s appropriate is sadly lacking.
• They’re trying to provoke a reaction – this is called trolling
• They object to whatever you said in your blog post and don’t see why they should hold back on their opinion just because you’re a kid
• They know you in real life and are trying to wind you up – this is bullying, plain and simple

So what to do if you inadvertently attract one of the nasties?

First of all, as a matter of course we recommend that all comments on a kid blog be set for moderation. This means that if somebody leaves a comment, it doesn’t get published straight away until you or your parents approve it. You can change these settings in the comments section in your blog dashboard. Trolls and bullies feed on oxygen and causing a reaction. So if they know they’re not going to get it, they will often go away and not bother you in the first place.

You can also use your blogging dashboard to ban individual IP addresses if you get a repeat offender.

As the blog owner, you also have the choice to edit the actual comment. I once had a comment that was quite well thought out and had good points to make, but it was full of inappropriate language for a kid’s blog. So I edited out the language and kept the sense of the comment.

Of course if your post was designed to provoke a reaction in the first place, then don’t be surprised if somebody brings a different opinion – it may make for an interesting discussion in the comments box. But don’t expect a troll to change their opinion – that’s just not how they operate.

Remember that a negative comment is always much more about the person who wrote it rather than anything you did or said on your blog. Some people are just angry and unpleasant and there’s nothing you can do to change that, though you can choose not to be like that yourself.

What’s your experience of commenters been like? Have you ever had to deal with nasty comments? Leave a comment below (preferably a nice one)

image credit: Scott Beazley