Jennifer Zamparelli opens up about impact of horrific trolling: ‘It still stings’

Jennifer Zamparelli has lifted the lid on the impact social media trolling and hurtful comments online has on her, explaining that she sometimes replies to negative comments

Broadcaster Jennifer Zamparelli has opened up about the impact online trolling has had on her.

The podcaster said despite being in the industry for so long, hurtful comments online still affect her.

She believes more needs to be done to regulate social media, to prevent trolls from being able to hide behind anonymous accounts.

“I really do feel that you shouldn’t be allowed to set up a social media account [without verification], it has to be attached to a passport, or a form of identification, so you can be reprimanded, you can be taken off that site,” she said.

Jennifer added that if you got a threatening letter in the door, you would take it to the police station, but online, “nothing can be done.”

“It’s just awful. I think people who write these things, sometimes they don’t think you’re going to see it, but we do.

“We all have our insecurities, no matter how we portray ourselves or look online. We all have our bad days, and then for someone to nit-pick at you is very, very sad and can be quite hurtful.

“Me being in the industry for such a long time, because I’m 110 now, you do learn to deal with it, but it still stings. It does,” she said on Ireland AM.

Ireland AM host Eric Roberts added that he was relatively new to the industry, and he said that he wasn’t even aware that trolling online was happening to such an terrible extent.

“There’s zero accountability, these are real people at the other end of the comments and messages. Something has to be done very very soon because it’s so damaging,” he said.

“Sometimes I reply to them,” Jennifer added. “Sometimes I’m like, ‘Are you okay?’, and that kind of disarms them. They don’t realise that you’re reading it.”

Jennifer’s daughter is now 11 and even though she has no social media, she does have a kind of Nokia 3210 phone for emergencies.

“I’m so worried about the future when she will want social media one day, when she’s over 16, I believe that’s the right age, how I’m going to deal with all that,” Jennifer said.

“I’m just trying to give her the tools to always come and talk to me about stuff… you can only protect them so much and that’s the scary thing.

“Just be kind, just don’t be an a*se.”

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