It's a sad reality of social media that, following the laws of probability, when someone dies, if enough people are aware of it, a few people are going to make some crass comments. But maybe this is all set to change, with the news that a girl has received a police caution for being 'grossly offensive' on Facebook.
The 17-year-old girl had made a comment on Facebook following the sudden, tragic death of a 15-year-old boy James Lock last month, whose body was found in the Hendrefolian Woods near Olchfa school on the outskirts of Swansea.
But shortly after posting it the teenager, who had created false email and social networking accounts to write the offensive messages, was arrested, with police saying that her posts could cause 'great upset and harm.'
Det Insp Darren George, of Swansea CID told the BBC: 'The comments which circulated on social media caused a lot of distress and we are grateful to the members of the public who contacted us to report their concerns.'
And he admitted that using this girl as an example to be held up to other would-be trolls is definitely part of the police's incentive for cautioning her. 'This and other recent cases have demonstrated that we will take action against individuals who use the internet and social media to post grossly offensive comments,' he continued. 'I would like to take this opportunity to remind people of their responsibilities to keep comments on social media within the law. Offensive posts can cause great upset and harm to families who are targeted at very distressing times in their lives.'
An inquest into James's death started this week but has been adjounred until September, so it's still not known how he died. But let's at least hope that this police move will stop any more nasty speculation about it spreading across social media in the meantime.
Follow Sophie on Twitter @sophwilkinson
This article originally appeared on The Debrief.