Recently Harvey Price one of Anna Kennedy OBE’s Antibullying Autism Ambassador has been the subject of bullying and discrimination on social media.
Anna highlighted the post to Katie Price Harveys mum and asked Twitter to take down this offensive post and the autism community also reported the post to the social media platform.
Katie Price has been contacted by Sussex police and an investigation is now in progress.
During these difficult times in Lockdown due to Covid 19 more autistic adults and children are experiencing bullying online . UK Autism Charity Anna Kennedy online are once again highlighting their Anti Bullying Campaign ‘Give us a Break’ which was highlighted on Gateway Radio 97.8 and will be highlighted by Watford FC.
Anna Kennedy shares some tips and advice if you are experiencing offensive material on Social Media :
If you or for example, disabled dependent are the subject of material on social media that is offence or malicious which has caused the subject (you or the disabled person) alarm or distress, this could be harassment if it has occurred on two or more occasions.
References made to race or disability (or any protected characteristic) are seen to aggravate any potential offense.
What is to be done?
- Firstly, contact the Social Media Platform in Question and report the matter and ask them to take action.
- Contact the police. This can be done online, but perhaps the best thing to do is go to the police station with copies of all relevant documents i.e. Tweets, Posts etc and get a crime number and ask for the contact details of the officer who will be assigned to this matter.
When you contact the officer – be polite but persistent. The Police have the means to identify persons making posts etc.
There are a range of actions open to the Police against persons who post such material.
They can serve them with a Harassment Warning Notice or, if the harassment persists or in serious cases, the person involved could face prosecution.
