Labour MP calls for tougher laws on internet bullying

People were being driven to suicide by grossly offensive comments from an ever-escalating number of "sick people" who trolled for a kind of pleasure, he warned.

Loopholes in the law must be plugged and police must be given more time to investigate, said the Liverpool MP - who has himself been the victim of trolling.

He challenged Parliament and the government to think hard about ways of changing online culture.

Mr Rotheram pledged to step up his campaign after a rather half-hearted response from a government minister in a late-night Commons debate on Monday.

Home Office Minister Jeremy Browne insisted: "I believe 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."

Mr Rotheram referred to the case of Natasha MacBryde, who was driven to her death. He said the 18-week prison sentence handed out to Sean Duffy was the severest punishment so far for trolling.

He added that many months before the release of the Hillsborough disaster independent panel report he had spoken to Facebook about a page that had been set up called 96 Wasn't Enough.

It was recently estimated that nearly 8 per cent of all Facebook profiles were fake, warned Mr Rotheram.

"The test should be quite simply would someone be happy to put their name to what they have said under a false identity," he suggested.

"I am not talking about cases of whistleblowing, where it would be understandable to anonymise a person's details."

rogerbagley@peoples-press.com