Online abuse. People think they’re in another world.

I’m always writing about the need to protect kids from their own mobile phones. In the house, when they’re in front of you, you can keep an eye on them. However, when they’re away from you – even in the other room – you could assume that “someone” is protecting and monitoring them.

Not the case.

Although your internet provider might block adult websites, they won’t be blocking the feedback and interaction on apps like Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, WhatsApp and Pinterest. Other kids, whether they’re at the same school or in a totally different country, can send nasty messages to your kids.

However, we should point out that it’s not just kids either. Anybody venturing out onto social media can be subjected to abusive messages and responses. Bullying online is increasingly common, as anybody who’s ever uploaded a YouTube comment will be aware. Keyboard warriors, sitting behind the apparent anonymity of a screen, think that they’ll never be traced, so they say things online that perhaps they’d never say in “real life”.

But what would happen if those tweets, those online comments and that hate was taken offline?

Well, a social experiment, filmed below with actors playing the abusers and those receiving the abuse, aims to find out. This is what happens when online bullying is taken offline.