Can anything be done about Internet trolls?

In October a judge handed down a 12-week prison sentence to David Woods for posting sexually explicit remarks on his Facebook page about April Jones, a five-year old girl who went missing in Wales.

British student Liam Stacey was also jailed last year for 56 days for posting racially abusive tweets about Bolton footballer Fabrice Muamba after the player went into cardiac arrest during a match. As Muamba lay struggling for life on the pitch, Stacey tweeted “LOL f**k Muamba he’s dead !!! #Haha” and followed it up with a handful of racist posts aimed at other users.

Did Stacey’s punishment fit the crime or was it over the top? And where should we draw the line between free speech, censorship and privacy?

Britain’s politicians are considering new laws that would require websites to reveal the identities of trolls who have posted defamatory content about other people online.

In Italy prosecutors aren’t only going after cyber-bullies, they’re also threatening action against the social media sites themselves.