UK Parliament Watch

Online harassment and abuse is stifling debate and ruining lives , according to Yvette Cooper , who is calling on police and prosecutors to follow the Guardian's lead in unmasking the true extent of the problem.

The Labour MP claimed that misogyny, racism and homophobic abuse were all growing online.

The comments come after the Guardian launched a major series called the Web We Want , which revealed the darker side of online comments on its own website, generally disagreeing with the extreme PC nonsense peddled by Guardian writers.

Cooper called for online threats, harassment and stalking to be included in the Crime Survey for England and Wales, and said other media providers should carry out research similar to that done by the Guardian.

Cooper has also launched a campaign called Reclaim the Internet , which will hold a conference in late May. It is an allusion to the feminist campaign, Reclaim the Night. It will focus on how police and prosecutors can tackle hate crimes, threats and intimidation. It will also look at how social media platforms can be persuaded to be more proactive about censorship.

Executive Summary @ Criminal law is inappropriate for regulating consenting adult sexual activity, including sex work.

• Criminalisation of either sex workers themselves or their clients has the effect of stigmatising sex workers unfairly.

• It prevents some people who lack the capacity to maintain long-term intimate relationships, such as those with severe physical disabilities or the elderly, from pursuing their legitimate interest in sexuality.

• It puts sex workers in an antagonistic position with public authorities, reducing the personal security of sex workers .

• It can create opportunities and temptations for police officers to engage in opportunistic or predatory behaviour.

• It can prevent sex workers integrating into normal labour market activity, such as making national insurance contributions and developing a credit record. These are essential for personal savings and accessing long-term legally secured housing.

Read the full Backlash submission from data.parliament.uk

Maria Miller, the Conservative former culture secretary and equalities minister has claimed that Britain needs better internet laws to stop online abuse that may be creating a nightmare for society in future.

Now the chair of the Commons women and equalities committee, she said the government needed to wake up to some of the problems the internet was creating, from vile abuse on social media to easy sharing of violent explicit images among young people.

In 2014, ministers quadrupled the maximum six-month prison term for internet insults to two years. The time limit for prosecutions has also been extended to three years.

Miller now says that the laws around insult and harm on the internet could be updated further and internet companies could do more to act against threatening and abusive material online. She claimed:

We need better laws and we need better enforcement. Government needs to stop allowing internet providers from hiding behind arguments about the protection of free speech.

The problem is rooted in the fact that many internet companies won't acknowledge that they can challenge, and should stop, criminal behaviour, saying they are just like the postal service and can't help that people use their services for criminal activity, that it's not their problem. It is their problem and we need to sit up, take notice and realise that we are creating a nightmare future.

People are unleashing their inner venom in a way I just do not think is healthy for society. We have got to have an honest debate about this. Too many people in government are saying it is all about freedom of speech and it is not.