Outlaw internet trolls
TV star Katie wants new law for abusive posts
KATIE Price has told MPs that online abuse should be made a specific offence after social media attacks against her son.
The TV star also wants to see the creation of a register of offenders.
Price told the Commons Petitions Committee that a line should be drawn between “banter” and criminal abuse and that the law had failed to keep up with the changing use of technology.
Her 15-year-old son Harvey – who is partially blind, autistic and has Prader-Willi syndrome – was targeted on Twitter last year by an unnamed 19-year-old who received a caution from Sussex Police.
Price told MPs that police had been powerless to act in other cases, adding: “The police were really embarrassed because they couldn’t charge them with anything, so the cases had to get dropped. Since then, it has got worse and worse – you name it, Harvey gets it.”
She said she had tried “naming and shaming” trolls but added: “Online is the future and there needs to be more security checks.”
MPs triggered an inquiry into online abuse after Price started a petition, which has been backed by more than 220,000 people.
Asked if she believed her profile had contributed to the abuse, she said: “I am actually glad now that I have put myself in the public eye.
“I am extremely happy because there are so many people who don’t know how to cope with it.”
She added: If I wasn’t in the public eye, I would not be sitting here now because I would not have got 220,000 signatures in one week.
“Like me or hate me, I’m here to protect others.”