Katie Price has launched an official petition to make internet trolling an offence after years of her eldest son being subjected to cruel bullying online.
Katie and her family have all been subjected to nasty taunts online, but Harvey in particular, has been a target for internet bullies.
Harvey, 14, has Prader-Wili syndrome, is blind, has mobility issues and is on the autistic spectrum.
Trolls have even created vile memes and added cruel captions to photos of Harvey, mocking the disabled teen.
Katie recently shared examples of these on her Instagram page, to highlight the abuse her son suffers.
Katie explained she’d decided to take action into her own hands, as reporting and exposing trolls in the past hadn’t achieved anything.
The outspoken businesswoman wrote: “Trolling is a major problem in this day and age. People of all ages and background suffer every day, including my family – especially my son Harvey.”
“I have tried my best to expose people and even had two arrested but nothing was done and there were no repercussions or penalties for this behaviour.”
“This does not affect just high profile people, it affects everyone from every walk of life from young children, teenagers, people at work, husbands and wives.”
“This abuse includes racism, homophobia, body shaming and a whole range of other hate speech.”
The petition calls on the UK government to “Make online abuse a criminal offence and create a register of offenders.”
Katie has faced numerous incidents of trolling in the past, such as being criticised for a photo of herself kissing Harvey on the lips, her parenting style criticised for allowing her daughter to wear makeup, and even for leaving her Christmas decorations up as Harvey dislikes change.
Feisty Katie had always responded to trolls and has even gotten her kids involved also.
It seems like her tolerance towards online bullies has now worn out and we don’t blame her.
Katie explained she wanted to “bring justice to everyone who has ever suffered at the hands of trolls.”
“Help me to hammer home worldwide that bullying is unacceptable whether it's face to face or in an online space”, the former glamour model appealed.
Earlier today, she posted a photo of herself and Harvey on Instagram and asked her fans to help her by signing the petition.
And, this tactic seems to have worked, as the petition has now gathered thousands of signatures in just a few hours.
Katie’s petition has already exceeded the necessary 100,000 signatures necessary for it to be considered worthy for debate in parliament.
Currently, the petition has almost 110,000 signatures and a government representative should reply to it in the next 24 hours.
What do you think mums? Would you like to see such a measure being introduced?
