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The net was once touted as a haven from the effects of racism, thanks to the anonymity and race-neutral nature of the medium. However, according to a new study published by the University of Illinois, young people are increasingly becoming victim to racism online, and the effects of the abuse can be severe.

"There's been a lot of publicity about cyber-bullying and teenagers protecting themselves from online predators, and justifiably so," said Brendesha Tynes, professor of educational psychology and of African American studies at the university. "But people don't know much about online racial discrimination and its effects on adolescent emotional well-being."

Tynes said that although there have been a number of studies exploring the psychological effects of bullying and victimisation online, none has explored the effects of race-fuelled bullying. She claims that online racism may even have a more detrimental effect to face to face racism.

"I wanted to make a distinction between online racial discrimination and offline racial discrimination," she said. "Since people of colour experience racial discrimination in both face-to-face settings and online, I wanted to find out whether online racial

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discrimination impacts adjustment over and above what's experienced in offline settings. We've found evidence to suggest that it does."

Among the types of racism Tynes discovered online, were hate groups who actively try to recruit new members by creating child-friendly websites.

"There are white power groups who, for example, lure teens and kids by creating websites that are advertised as being for kids," she said, citing the Stormfront "White Pride For Kids' " (sic) website.

As part of their recruiting efforts, hate-mongers will not only congregate in websites and discussion forums related to their own ethnic groups, but they will also lurk in forums created for a specific ethnic group of colour and "troll" those message boards, she said. "To troll" is internet slang for deliberately posting a taunting, abusive message for the sole intention of causing chaos.

"I saw many examples of trolls going to sites devoted to a specific ethnic group of colour and then posting a negative message filled with racial epithets solely to provoke and inflame members of that community," she said.

While Tynes dismissed the idea of restricting young people from what the internet has to offer, she called for parents and schools to discuss issues about race, culture and the role of the internet, with their children.

"It would be impossible to monitor every website that's out there," she said. "I am a proponent of more conversations about race, more study of people's culture, and keeping an open line of communication with our teens about the fact that these things might happen. That's why we need more discussion, so that when teens experience race-related victimisation online, it can serve as a buffer to help them to feel a sense of racial pride and a positive racial identity."