people think they are protected and able to lose all pretence of civility when in an online environment, as if all social norms and regulatory behaviour is thrown out the window, and to an extent that is true, in that as long as we protect our anonymity and keep degrees of separation between our digital and regular lives
however every year the borders between the two are becoming more blurred, as social networking becomes an integrated part of our lives, younger generations spend more of their recreational time with internet communities..
there are a shockingly high amount on incidents where things that we once could suppose were purely "lol internet" end up having real life consequences: harassment, relationships, suicides, business or entertainment success..
don't expect the standards that we hold of our protected internet speech to stay the same forever. when it comes to pc game chat rooms, maybe not, and it is a bit much to expect people to act like sane human beings in many online environments. but i certainly believe it is not naive or foolish to think people can act reprehensibly online in ways that could (or at least, should) deserve consequences