Katie Price has called for web trolls to face criminal charges.
The former glamour model created an anti-troll petition – which attracted more than 200,000 signatures – due to her son Harvey, 15, being constantly being singled out by online bullies because of his mixed-race heritage and various disabilities.
On Tuesday (06.02.18), Katie took her petition to the House of Parliament to try and persuade MPs to listen to her plea.
She told Sky News: "It’s a serious day for, I’m here to go in front of the select committee – I want to make online abuse a criminal offence. In one week, I got 220,000 signatures and a lot of those people admit they are not fans of mine. I’ve got five children and everyone seems to pick on one of them because of the colour of his skin, he’s got complex disabilities. I got two people arrested by the police, they took it as far as they could and even they were embarrassed. There’s so many people online who are committing suicide, all these things are happening, so we’ll have to crack down on it quick. It doesn’t matter what age you are – if you’re old enough to get a computer and type, then you’re old enough to know you’re abusing people. I think anyone who is going to be listening to what I have to say, if they don’t agree with it then they have no heart, no soul, no morals. This should stop. Anyone can become or have a disability, anyone could be getting abuse. This is nothing to do with me whatsoever, it’s for everyone getting abuse online."
Katie and Harvey – who she had while she was dating former Manchester United soccer player Dwight Yorke – has previously appeared on talk shows showing how much her son is dealing with trolls.
On the same day Katie handed her petition to the House of Commons, the Prime Minister Theresa May hinted she would be backing new rules and said that "broad action is taking place to address this issue".