No, this is definitely something related to the anonymous de-sensitized nature of the Internet.

Had she stood up in class and asked the same question, those same people would have looked away or told her to sit down. We act different in real life interactions, because it's built-in to us over 10's of thousands of years of interaction. The Internet removes that physical barrier and allows the mind to run un-filtered. We say and think fucked up shit in our minds....all of us.