To think One Direction should do something about their fans?

[BeetlebumShesAGun]

I think I probably am being a bit unreasonable, after all they can't police the internet, but would be interested in opinions.

Louis Tomlinson recently got a load of Fans to donate money to his football team (I happen to think this is pretty immoral anyway). It hasn't worked out and DP made a jokey tweet about it. You can see what's coming can't you...

He got a tweet saying basically you're a bitch, your baby daughter is a slut and she will die because of you. DD is 7 months.

He reported it to Twitter who have now suspended the account.

I just think, these young girls are really doing tjemselves damage. What you put out onto the internet is around forever and when they grow up it will come back to haunt them. For example the fan who broke her dogs neck because they didn't reply to her. If One Direction produced say, a video message to their fans explaining this, would it have any effect?

I know they're just a couple of lads in a band and don't necessarily invite any of this and it's not really their fault but it just shocked me.

AIBU?

Oops.

An old colleague of DH's had lost contact with some of her family. She had started threatening suicide, she locked herself in her house etc, obviously everyone panicked and rushed round. Turned out it was because of Take That splitting up. She was about 30 at the time I think.

ICanSeeTheSun I explained up thread.

All bands have some crazy fans that just cannot accept their idols are less than perfect. I know an adult Michael Jackson fan and all she does is tweet about him. She won't hear a bad word said about him.

I think it's natural for boy bands in particular to have obsessive fans, mainly because of their target audience is usually young girls with raging hormones. When I was younger I loved Westlife and Boyzone. At that time though there was no twitter/social media to air such disgusting comments on like "I'm going to kill x for dating x" Now there is such platforms to air views like that. It's their parents responsibility to check how their little darlings are conducting themselves online. I would be horrified in years to come my DD wrote anything like that.

I'm not sure there's anything One Direction can do. They won't the the first boy band to have fans that think they will grow up and marry them, nor will they be the last. Most of their fans will grow out of it. I'm not saying for a second that their threats is acceptable. It's not of course. Calling a child a slut is disgusting, there is some pretty crazy one direction fans online. But it's their parents who ought to be having strong words, not the group.

Sorry read the thread again.

To some girls they love the band, I was a teenager once and I love Gary Barlow, Robbie Williams ect I was devestated when Robbie left take that.

Then I moved on and loved eminem.

I think if I was a teenager I would have defended the love of my immuture life

YANBU

However, if they made a video to respond and plead to fans to change their behaviour, I think this would provide fans with the attanetion they desire.

There are going to be a lot of mortified 30 year olds in 15 years time.

As for Louis getting his fans to donate to a football team that undoubtedly they had no interest in pre One Direction, I find that completely immoral

I agree with others that One Direction fans are no crazier than Take That/Duran Duran/E17 fans of yore but that the internet gives them a much more visible platform for their lust filled craziness. I remember when Kirsten thingy of Twilight fame cheated on her boyfriend there were the most jaw dropping videos posted on youtube of fans going out of their mind with rage for what she'd done.

I'm quite happy my temporary obsession with EMF did nothing more than scale the dizzy heights of keeping a scrapbook and swooning over them at gigs.

Had no idea 1D had asked their fans to fund some crummy football club! Your DH's comment sounded totally innocuous and teenager or not their retaliation was out of order.

But it's not up to 1D to police their fans.

The internet - and social media particularly - allow kids to obsess on their idols 24/7, and get new information about them every day, so the levels of obsession have definitely risen.

Plus a lot of those kids end up that way because they are baited by trolls, or they see the band getting slated. There are plenty of grown-ups who take pleasure in winding up 13/14 year old girls. I think it ends up a fighting fire with fire thing. I saw a comment on twitter from some balding bloke in a football shirt that was something like 'If they ever met you they would think you're so ugly they wouldn't even use your mouth to shit in.' The kids end up developing thick skins to cope with it. Even the band - Niall greeted some teenage fans at an airport by calling them cunts!

I'd actually be interested to read further around this whole screaming, hysterical teenage obsession phenomenon which affects girls (generally girls). I caught the last half hour of A Hard Day's Night the other week on tv and the hysterical screaming was evident back in the 60s too. I think if the Internet was around in 1963 the Beatles fans would've been just as hardcore.

It's a disgusting thing to post but it seems these kind of comments are rife on Twitter. I remember those feminists having rape threats a few months back--it's the hiding behind a screen bully. 95% of these abusive posters wouldn't even attempt to say half the things they do online to someone's face because they are cowards.

Unfortunately young girls are very impressionable . Plus you'll always have some fans that are over the top and become obsessed.

Eminent fans are one of the worst sort.

I'm sorry about the abuse your DH got-- I hope they look back in 5 years time and are disgusted with themselves.

That was supposed to say Eminem fans.

My sister was a bit obsessed with Boyzone no idea why

Talking of Duran Duran obsessions, my friend was utterly obsessed with Nick Rhodes (no idea why, I thought John Taylor was the looker in that band!). He started dating someone, a model I think, and she was off the scale crazy about that. She would rant about how vile this woman was, wanted to write hate mail to her and how he deserved someone much nicer, like my friend! If the internet had been around then, I have no doubt she would have been one of the crazies.

I've always wondered what they think of these rabid fans. I bet they terrify them.

Even if they did say anything, I don't think it would make the more rabid ones change their behaviour. They'd probably just turn into the weird type of fans who obsess out of hatred rather than love.

My little sister is a Directioner, so trust me I get the whole obsessed fan thing. She would never say something like that to somebody but would be very defensive if somebody made a joke about the Louis football thing.

But you ABVVVU to think it's up to One Direction to control or monitor the behaviour of their fans. They're just kids themselves.

Also I can't help thinking that a girl who writes something that vile because of her love for a boyband has underlying issues. It's her parents responsibly to monitor what she says online.

*responsibility