The petition to make verified ID a legal requirement for those setting up a social media account has passed 100,000 signatures.
The campaign was started by Katie Price and would mean that anyone setting up an account on sites such as Facebook, Instagram or Twitter would need to provide identification so they can be traced if an offence occurs - such as online abuse.
The government will now have to respond to the petition and consider it for debate because it has passed the 100,000-signature requirement. As per the Parliament website, there will be a five-day wait for a government response.
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The petition reads: "Make it a legal requirement when opening a new social media account, to provide a verified form of ID.
"Where the account belongs to a person under the age of 18 verify the account with the ID of a parent/guardian, to prevent anonymised harmful activity, providing traceability if an offence occurs."
Explaining her reason for starting the petition, Katie Price said: "My son Harvey is disabled. He is also the kind and gentle son of a person regularly in the public eye.
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"The Online Harms Bill doesn't go far enough in making online abuse a specific criminal offence and doing what 'Harvey's Law' intended.
"To make the law work [it] needs the removal of anonymity to ensure that users cannot cause harm by using online platforms to abuse others.
"Where an offence has taken place they ought to be easily identified and reported to the police and punished.
"We have experienced the worst kind of abuse towards my disabled son and want to make sure that no one can hide behind their crime."
Despite the petition getting an overwhelming amount of signatures, those in the LQBTQ+ community claim it could be 'extremely harmful', with thousands addressing their concerns using the #saveanonymity hashtag.
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One person wrote on Twitter: "Katie Price is tying to get a law passed in the UK that makes sure you have to show a form of ID when logging into social media apps, you would have to provide information such as: your gender, sexuality, pronouns.
"This is extremely harmful because this could lead to outing of thousands of closeted LGBTQ+ kids who may live in an abusive household.
"Please RT this, spread information and use the tag #saveanonymity even if you don't live in the UK you can still help!!"
Featured Image Credit: PA
