London, Jul 29 (IANS): Crystal Palace forward Wilfried Zaha said that he is afraid to open his social media accounts because of the constant racial abuse.

Zaha was a victim of racist abuse earlier this month.

After screenshots of messages he received were put up on his social media accounts, authorities tracked down the perpetrators and a 12-year-old boy was arrested before being released under investigation.

"Every time I'm scared to even look up my direct messages because it could be filled with anything," he told CNN.

"For black footballers for instance, being on Instagram is not even fun for us any more. You're not enjoying your profile. I don't even have Twitter on my phone any more because it's almost certain that you're going to get some sort of abuse," he said.

Zaha said that social media companies need to do more to curb the menace.

"I got racially abused after the stuff that I got before and it's like, what happens after that account gets blocked? Then they just make a new one straight after," he said.

"I feel like with everything that we do in life, with everything we register to, we have to give some sort of ID, so why is it not the same with Instagram? Why is it not the same with Twitter?" Zaha added.