​Liverpool captain Henderson hands over social media accounts over 'toxic' abuse | OneFootball

Liverpool captain Jordan Henderson has taken the step of handing over his social media accounts to an anti-cyberbullying organization.

Henderson is the latest footballer to speak up on the topic of online abuse towards players and other people in general.

The midfielder made a statement on his Twitter page explaining the reasons for his step, and how he hopes to raise awareness about cyberbullying on these social media platforms.

"When people read these programme notes, they might like them, they might dislike them, they might wish I'd said something different or that I had talked about a subject that's particularly important to them," the Liverpool skipper wrote.

"The beauty of a publication like this, though, is that all such thoughts will remain just that. There is no capacity for comments, which means there is no risk of the kind of abuse which continues to make social media a place that becomes toxic and at times unusable.

"I should stress that I am not against comments and I'm not against criticism. Used properly, social media is undoubtedly a force for good as it allows engagement and it also affords people the opportunity to tell others when they've got something wrong.

"The problem is that far too often it isn't used properly and at its worst it offers a platform to those who think targeting others with abuse – be it racist, homophobic, sexist or whatever – is somehow acceptable.

"It's for this reason why I have handed my social media accounts over to the Cybersmile Foundation, an anti-cyberbullying charity which does incredible work supporting many of those who are targeted by such abuse and promotes more positive uses of the internet.

"To put it bluntly, I'm sick of seeing people I know, and people I don't know, having to put up with the kind of abuse that turns my stomach. It has to stop and anyone who has a shred of decency has to play their part in making it stop.

"I didn't do this lightly. I thought about it a lot and at one stage I was considering switching off all of my social media accounts in protest. I still have that option and I applaud those, like Thierry Henry, who have taken the ultimate step as far as this issue is concerned.

"But for now I want to see if I can turn my own feelings into something positive by shining a bit of light on an appalling situation and seeing if some sort of positive can be extracted from it.

"I don't have all of the answers. I may not even have any of them. When it comes down to it, I'm a footballer with no expertise in social media, but I do know the difference between right and wrong and I think I would be doing a disservice to my upbringing and the position of responsibility I hold if I did nothing.

"More than anything, I would feel like I was letting down my own teammates, players at other clubs and everyone else who knows what it is to be a victim of this scourge."