AN X Factor contestant has become the latest victim of Twitter trolls - simply for winking at a member of chart-topping boy band One Direction.

Briden-Starr Aspinall was bombarded with vicious, hate-filled messages after appearing to flirt with the UK singer on Channel 7's primetime reality show on Tuesday night.

Yesterday she joined The Daily Telegraph's Stop The Trolls campaign, a zero tolerance approach to anonymous online abusers, vowing to stand up to the cyber bullies.

Aspinall, 20, was performing when she winked at mentor and One Direction frontman Harry Styles, who said: "I'm actually in love with her."

The flirtatious exchange fired up the band's notoriously aggressive fans, who immediately began messaging Aspinall's personal Twitter page saying they wanted to "cut your eyeballs out of your head". Another threatened to "throw you under a bus".

Hypocrite - Farah wished a noose for PM's birthday via Twitter

Aspinall, a musical theatre performer and dance instructor, said she felt threatened by the abuse and wanted to help make it stop.

"If there's one thing I won't put up with it's bullying," she said yesterday.

"Initially I felt quite threatened. It's scary to hear someone you've never met talk about you in that way.

"It's horrible. But then you remind yourself it's just some teenager locked away in their bedroom and you realise you need to step away."

Making matters worse, the dance instructor said the wink was not directed at the One Thing singer.

"It was all part of the performance," she said. "What you saw (on X Factor) is as far as it went with us.

"I'd like to think I'm a pretty strong person, so I just deleted the posts and reported the (trolls) to Twitter. Ignoring them is the best way to go about this but someone else ... that could really affect you."

Last night a Channel 7 spokeswoman said: "Trolling is a significant, frightening issue. As a community we need to acknowledge its poison and urgently develop a solution to protect those at risk."

Two weeks ago TV personality Charlotte Dawson ended up in hospital after being overwhelmed by hundreds of death threats sent via Twitter.

Meanwhile, Premier Barry O'Farrell and NSW Police Minister Mike Gallacher confirmed they are discussing a review of laws to tackle cyber bullying with the federal government.

While social media experts have said ignoring abuse is the best policy, Mr O'Farrell said legal action had to be taken: "Whether it happens to a showbiz personality, a footballer or someone down the street, we need to send the strongest message that it's not acceptable," he said.