Trolls who encourage people to harm themselves online face up to five years in jail under a new criminal offence announced by the Ministry of Justice (MoJ).
According to The Telegraph:
The offence, to be introduced on Thursday as part of the online safety bill, will apply to anyone who encourages someone to self-harm regardless of whether they go on to injure themselves.
It will cover not only online trolls, whether anonymous or named, but also anyone who posts on social media, sends emails, writes letters or urges someone verbally to self harm.
The crackdown follows the death of Molly Russell, 14, who took her own life after being bombarded with suicide and self-harm content on social media. Her inquest concluded she died from an “act of self-harm whilst suffering from depression and the negative effects of online content.”
The new offence comes on top of proposed laws in the bill requiring tech firms to block any content that promotes self-harm – or risk fines of up to 10 per cent of their global turn-over if they fail to do so.
Justice Secretary Alex Chalk said: “There is no place in our society for those who set out to deliberately encourage the serious self-harm of others. Our new law will send a clear message to these cowardly trolls that their behaviour is not acceptable.
“Building on the existing measures in the Online Safety Bill our changes will make it easier to convict these vile individuals and make the internet a better and safer place for everyone.”
Ian Russell, Molly’s father, “strongly” welcomed the move but said ministers needed to ensure plans to jail tech bosses for persistent breaches were extended to cover self-harm.
“Crucially, this new offence will mean that social media companies must tackle this awful behaviour with a clear sense of urgency,” he said. “However the Government must go further and commit to senior managers being held personally liable for failing to tackle this type of damaging illegal content.”
Police or prosecutors will only have to prove communication was intended to encourage or assist serious self-harm amounting to grievous bodily harm (GBH). This could include serious injuries such as broken bones or permanent physical scarring.
The offence will apply even where the perpetrator does not know the person they are targeting, a move designed to end what the MoJ described as “abhorrent trolling” that risks serious self-harm or life-changing injuries.
Encouraging someone to starve themselves or not take prescribed medication will also be covered.
It replicates for self-harm the 1961 Suicide Act, under which any who encourages or assists suicide faces up to 14 years in jail.
