West Coast star ruckman Nic Naitanui has revealed that he is racially abused on social media frequently during the AFL season.

Naitanui, one of the AFL's most loved players, said that about one in ten messages he received on social media during the AFL season were racist in sentiment, a situation he called "disappointing.''

In an interview with The Age to promote his children's book "Little Nic's Big Day'', Naitanui outlined how racial abuse had moved from the on-field taunts he received as a kid, then some abuse from spectators, to social media, where it was widespread for players such as Indigenous teammate Liam Ryan and forward Eddie Betts.

Naitanui said while he had "called out'' some racism online, it reached a point where he did not necessarily want to give voice to the abusers.

"Yeah. I get a heap. You know, it comes to a point where you don't want to post it or put it on. You get a lot of players who will post it and put it out there. To me, that's beneficial at times, because it is calling them out - I've done it a few times. But then it gets to a point where how much voice do you give these people?