MPS back Katie Price’s campaign against online and social media abuse
Katie Price received the backing of MPS Stella Creasy and John Whittingdale as she spoke about her government campaign to take action against internet trolls.
The reality TV star will give evidence to the Commons Petitions Committee tomorrow about her call to make online abuse a specific criminal offence and to create a reg- ister of offenders. Her 15-yearold 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.
The MPS began an inquiry into online abuse after a petition Price launched “brought to parliament an issue that has not been widely discussed”.
Price said: “Harvey was getting racial abuse, they were mocking him, doing sex videos on him, putting him in T-shirts, and he’s got complex special needs – I’ve got five children but they always pick on him.
“I got two people arrested, [the police] seized all their computers, they seized everything, took them quite far, but then it got to the point where they can’t charge them with nothing because there’s nothing in place for it.”
She said she wants to introduce legislation called Harvey’s Law, and highlighted the lack of social media security aimed at protecting people from such abuse.
Labour MP Ms Creasy said: “What happened to Katie’s son is horrific and completely unacceptable. My frustration as somebody who has always experienced this is all too often it seems an issue about malicious communications, actually there is legislation around harassment.
“The police and the CPS need to be much better at using the harassment legislation and put the victim at the centre of it.”
She said she was concerned the authorities “see this as about the language used rather than the targeting of somebody” and added: “It’s that legislation that Katie needs.”
Conservative former minister Mr Whittingdale said: “I do think this is something we need to look at.”