The Minister of State, Home Department (Mr Jeremy Browne)
I congratulate the hon. Member for Liverpool, Walton (Steve Rotheram) not only on giving us the opportunity to debate this important subject—and he made his speech with great force and evident sincerity—but on his ongoing campaigning on the subject. I am happy, as a Home Office Minister, to indicate a willingness to engage with him on how we can try to address many of the serious concerns that he raised.
We all benefit from the internet, and the Government are keen to promote the positives of that technology for both economic growth and social value. At the same time, we all have a responsibility to help prevent crime, and to take appropriate action to protect ourselves and others in cyberspace.
So-called trolling is an example of where the opportunities presented by the internet, particularly social media networks, can be abused in the ways that the hon. Gentleman highlighted. It has the potential to be far more serious than simple banter—I agree with him about that, and disagree with commentators who have described it merely in those terms. It can include highly offensive, obscene and menacing behaviour, solely intended to cause pain and distress—activity that we would all agree is deplorable and disgraceful. The hon. Gentleman raised a powerful example from his constituency: grossly offensive messages on memorial pages to a young constituent who died in a tragic accident last year. I am sure that we all join him in expressing how terrible it must have been for that young constituent’s family and friends to have their grief compounded by those abusive and appalling messages.
More recently, as the hon. Member for Strangford (Jim Shannon) said, there has been a series of incidents involving high-profile public figures, which brought the activity—which impacts on people across the country going about their everyday lives—to wider public attention. If those examples serve any purpose, it is that they contribute to a wider public discourse about acceptable social norms and behaviour, particularly in the context of the appropriateness of behaviour online as well as offline.
Let me be clear, for the avoidance of doubt, that the Government are not seeking to criminalise bad manners, unkind comments, or idiotic views. Social media sites are not, and cannot, be an opportunity for entirely anonymous and consequence-free posting of comments that would be unacceptable in any other context. It is, therefore, important to emphasise the oft-repeated and clear principle that what is illegal offline is also illegal online. An individual should be charged and prosecuted for the offence they commit, irrespective of whether it happens in the street or in cyberspace.
Trolling can manifest itself in a number of ways, and hon. Members may find it helpful if I quickly rehearse the legislation that can be—and has been—used to prosecute such activity. The Malicious Communications Act 1988 covers the
“sending of an indecent, offensive or threatening letter, electronic communication or other article to another person.”
As has been mentioned, Sean Duffy was prosecuted last September under section 1 of that Act after posting offensive messages and videos on the tribute pages of young people who had died. He was jailed for 18 weeks.
Section 127 of the Communications Act 2003 created an offence of sending, or causing to be sent,
“by means of a public electronic communications network a message or other matter that is grossly offensive or of an indecent, obscene or menacing character”.
In 2010, Colm Coss was charged under section 127 of that Act for posting obscene messages on social network tribute sites. He, too, was successfully prosecuted and imprisoned for 18 weeks.
When trolling involves conduct that amounts to the harassment of another, offenders can be charged under the Protection from Harassment Act 1997. Conduct amounting to child abuse can be, and has been, prosecuted under the Protection of Children Act 1978. The Government are currently clarifying the law in the Defamation Bill to ensure that where trolling is defamatory, website operators are clear about their responsibilities to victims.
The Government are reforming measures to tackle antisocial behaviour, regardless of whether it occurs offline or online. To continue to support professionals to help and protect victims, we are introducing simpler and more effective powers that, where appropriate, agencies can use flexibly to deal with antisocial individuals who cause misery and distress to others. Robust legislation already exists, and the Crown Prosecution Service will determine what legislation to use in a prosecution, depending on the circumstances of each case.
The Government recognise that laws to deal with internet trolling are not sufficient on their own. Police and prosecutors need the capacity and knowledge to work within a complex legal framework, to meet the jurisdictional challenges of the online world, and to understand and balance legitimate concerns about civil liberties.
The Government take the threat to the UK from cyberspace extremely seriously, and are spending considerable amounts of money on cyber-security and cybercrime in its more narrow form. We have taken a number of significant actions to increase the capacity and capability of the UK law enforcement response to cybercrime. In particular, we are developing training on cybercrime for all police officers, which will help them to investigate crimes committed online, and we will create a national cybercrime unit within the National Crime Agency by 2013.
However, we should not see this problem entirely in legal terms; it is also about ensuring that cultural norms on appropriate and acceptable behaviour evolve at the same pace as technology. That goes wider than the role of the Home Office or the Government, to all of society. We recognise that prevention is a key part of tackling trolling as well as other forms of abuse and misuse of social networking sites. We are accordingly pressing the internet industry in the UK and Europe to implement clear and simple processes for dealing with abuse online. In our experience, for the most part, social network site operators adopt sensible and responsible positions on any abuse or misuse of their services in the terms and conditions they require for their use, but I take the point made by the hon. Member for Liverpool, Walton that that may require further work.
I pay tribute again to the hon. Gentleman for raising this matter and to others who contributed to the debate. I believe that we have sufficient laws in place to deal with the problem, but we need to be vigilant about it and aware of the huge offence it can cause. When the line between merely unpleasant behaviour and illegal behaviour is crossed, the Government are happy to work with Members of all parties to ensure that the appropriate action is taken.
Question put and agreed to.