"As adults, many of us are able to handle mean words, even lies. Children and teenagers can be fragile. They are hurt when they are made fun of, or made to feel less in looks or intelligence.
"Our culture has gotten too mean and too rough, especially to children and teenagers. It is never OK when a 12-year-old girl or boy is mocked, bullied or attacked. It is terrible when that happens in the playground, and it is absolutely unacceptable when it's done by someone with no name hiding on the internet.
"We have to find a better way to talk to each other, to disagree with each other, to respect each other. We must find better ways to honour the basic goodness of our children, especially on social media."
That's all very hard to disagree with, and yet the predominant reaction to Mrs Trump's speech has been one of unbridled scorn. Here, for example, is CNN anchor Jake Tapper's exasperated response.
Mrs Trump's critics are accusing her of hypocrisy, pointing to Mr Trump's legions of abusive supporters on social media and the Republican nominee's long history of insulting people online. They say it's a bit rich for her to argue against cyber-bullying when the worst offender is her own husband.
"In her first campaign speech since the convention, the aspiring First Lady urged voters to 'treat each other with respect and kindness', as the nation burst into hysterical laughter," read a particularly contemptuous article from the Hollywood Reporter.
"If Melania is worried about online bullying, shouldn't she direct her comments at her husband first?" asked conservative pundit Amanda Carpenter.
"Melania's speech today would be like Bernie Madoff's wife giving a talk on the integrity of investment portfolios and fighting Ponzi schemes," said ABC News political analyst Matthew Dowd.
"I kept thinking, 'Have you even met Donald Trump?'" said Mr Tapper's CNN colleague Dana Bash.
Mr Trump does have a habit of attacking people on social media. Here's a small sample of his more controversial tweets.
That last tweet compared a photo of Melania Trump with an unflattering one of Heidi Cruz, the wife of Mr Trump's biggest rival in the Republican primaries. Classy.
Mrs Trump was last in the spotlight two weeks ago when she confronted the sexual assault allegations against her husband in an interview with CNN's Anderson Cooper. She blamed a "left-wing" media conspiracy for the scandals, and dismissed Mr Trump's lewd comments in the infamous leaked Access Hollywood tape as "boy talk".
"As you can see from the tape, the cameras were not on. It was only a mic," she said.
"I wonder if they even knew that the mic was on because (it was) kind of boy talk and he was lead on, like, egged on from the host to say dirty and bad stuff."
"I don't know that person that would talk that way, and that he would say that kind of stuff in private. I heard many different stuff, boys talk. The boys, the way they talk when they grow up and they want to sometimes show each other, oh, this and that, and talking about the girls. But I was surprised."
Mrs Trump claimed it was "not a coincidence" that the tape, along with multiple allegations of sexual assault against Mr Trump, had surfaced just weeks before the election.
"It was all organised," she said. "They planned it that way because they don't want to talk about WikiLeaks and Benghazi.
"It was left-wing media, and you could see that and the way it comes out, everything is organised. This was all organised from the opposition."
