Social media posts led Molly Russell to commit suicide
Trolls encouraging people to self-harm online will face five years in prison for a new offense announced by the Department of Justice (DOJ).
The offense to be introduced Thursday under the Internet Safety Bill will apply to anyone who encourages someone to improve themselves. -harm regardless of whether they harm themselves.
It will cover not only online trolls, whether anonymous or named, but anyone who posts on social media, sends emails, writes letters, or verbally urges someone to harm themselves.
Repression followed Molly Russell's death. , 14, who took her own life after being bombarded with messages of suicide and self-harm on social media. Her investigation concluded that she died as a result of «an act of self-mutilation while suffering from depression and the negative effects of online content.»
The new offense comes on top of proposed laws in a bill requiring tech companies to block any content that promotes self-harm, or risk a fine of up to 10% of their global traffic if they don't.
Attorney General Alex Chalk said: “There is no place in our society for those who knowingly encourage other people to harm themselves. Our new law will make it clear to these cowardly trolls that their behavior is unacceptable.
«Based on the existing measures in the Internet Safety Bill, our changes will make it easier to condemn these vile people and make the Internet a better and safer place for everyone.»
Ian Russell, Molly's father, «strongly» welcomed the move, but said ministers need to ensure that jail plans for tech bosses for persistent violations are extended to self-harm.
“It is critical that this new offense will mean that social media companies need to address this horrendous behavior without delay,” he said. “However, the government should go further and hold senior executives personally responsible for failing to deal with this type of malicious illegal content.”
Police or prosecutors will only have to prove that the communication was intended to encourage or assistance serious self-harm equal to grievous bodily injury (GBH). These can be serious injuries such as broken bones or permanent physical scarring.
The offense will apply even if the perpetrator doesn't know the person they're targeting, a move meant to end what the Justice Department called «heinous trolling» that can lead to serious self-harm or life-changing injuries. It will also cover prompting someone to starve themselves or not take their prescribed medication.
For self-harm, he reiterates the 1961 Suicide Act, under which anyone who encourages or assists suicide faces up to 14 years in prison. balance the need to protect vulnerable people and not prosecute those who document self-harm as part of their recovery.
Research by the Mental Health Foundation shows that more than a quarter of women aged 16 to 24 have reported self-harm at some point in their lives, and since 1993, the rate of self-harm among women has tripled.
An Ipsos survey shows that more than two in three (67%) of British adults are concerned that they see content on the Internet that promotes or promotes self-harm.
Encouraging self-harm as a criminal offense
Encouraging online self-harm should be made a criminal offense in an attempt to prevent a repeat of the Molly Russell tragedy, the government announced on Saturday.
Social networks will be required by law to remove and prevent any material that promotes self-harm, and face multi-million dollar fines if they fail to do so.
The new offense, which will be part of the Internet Safety Bill, puts self-mutilation is on a par with encouraging or assisting suicide, which carries a maximum prison sentence of up to 14 years.
The ministers said the change was designed to deal with «avoidable and tragic» cases, such as the case of 14-year-old Molly, who took her own life after being bombarded with messages of self-harm and suicide on social media. An investigation into her death found that social media «made more than a minimal contribution». until her death.
An investigation by The Telegraph found that Instagram posts in which a schoolgirl «reveled» before committing suicide were still available on social media even after the inquest in September.
Social media giants threatened Penalty
Michelle Donelan, Minister of Culture, said: “I am determined to bring to justice the disgusting trolls who encourage the young and are prone to self-harm. Therefore, I am tightening our Internet safety laws to ensure that these heinous acts are eradicated and those responsible face jail time.
«Social media can no longer remain silent bystanders and face fines for allowing this abusive and destructive behavior to continue on their platforms in accordance with our laws.»
The announcement matches what should have been 20 Molly's birthday. The Molly Rose Foundation, a charity founded by her family and friends, said it was a «significant» step.
However, he added that the bill should cover all legitimate but harmful content that has undermined Molly's mental health, including messages such as «Who likes a suicide girl?»
«So it's important that the other» harmful but legal» content that we know was harmful to Molly was also covered by the bill. These are complex and vital issues that we need to address for the sake of young people in the future,” the foundation said.
Facilitating real-world self-harm by providing the tools to do so would be a crime in a separate law. In addition, by criminalizing it online, it joins one of the dozen «illegal» priority harms listed in the bill, along with terrorism, child abuse, fraud, revenge porn, harassment, and cyberstalking.
It will cover any posts, videos, images, and other messages that encourage self-inflicted injury. Social media firms will be required by law to remove or restrict them, imposing fines of up to 10% of their global turnover and the prospect of having their services blocked in the UK if they fail to do so.
Online protection is divided into three stages
The inclusion of self-harm as «unlawful» harm is the first of three stages of online defense that ministers are proposing as part of a bill that is due back in the House of Commons for consideration of its final stages on December 5.
A clause protecting adults from legal but harmful content that previously contained self-harm should be lifted after criticism from free speech activists that it could cause social media to «wake up» by removing controversial content that is upsetting but does no harm.
Instead, companies will be held liable for «legal but harmful» sexist, racist or offensive content in accordance with their terms of service. This would mean that if they did not deliver what they promised in their terms of service to protect people from abuse or harassment, they could be fined several million pounds.
In the third step, companies operating in social networks will be required to offer their adult users the ability to filter out abuse or other «harmful» content that is not illegal or does not meet their terms.
Ms Donelan has also pledged to strengthen child protection, which is considered that this would mean maintaining a list of “priority” legal but harmful content that children should not be exposed to, such as material that promotes eating disorders and porn.
With a second list of “priority” content, the company is expected to it will be appropriate for the age of the child. This could include misinformation about health or vaccines, and content depicting or encouraging violence.
Ministers are also considering tightening age verification requirements for social media platforms to ensure children can only see content that is age appropriate .
Свежие комментарии