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Daily Mirror
Daily Mirror
Entertainment
Lucy Needham

Katie Price and her mum share fears of Harvey being groomed as they evidence for Harvey's Law

Katie Price and her mum Amy shared fears Harvey Price could be groomed as they gave evidence about the horrific online abuse aimed at the teenager.

The pair spoke to MPs via video call as they gave evidence at a Petitions Committee hearing about Katie's campaign to make online bullying a crime.

"Through the years I get a lot of trolling and online abuse," said Katie. "The difference is I can speak out myself and protect myself.

"But my son Harvey was born with disabilities, he gets a lot of racial abuse, disgusting despicable things.

"He gets memes made about it, TikToks, posters, he gets mocked in such a serious disgusting way, there has to be some kind of justice."

18-year-old Harvey, suffers from partial blindness, Prader-Willi syndrome, autism, and learning and behavioural difficulties, as a result of a rare genetic disorder.

Grandmother Amy added: "He doesn't understand [the abuse] and he's very vulnerable. People can take advantage of that vulnerabilty."

"People make friends with people with disabilities to get money out of them or to have sex with them.

"You could groom somebody like Harvey on the internet. There has to be guidelines in place," she added.

Katie said people have asked her why she lets Harvey have access to social media where trolls are able to send him messages.

Addressing this complaint, she fired: "Why can't he have Instagram or Tik Tok? Social media is the way forward. Why should he be hidden away?"

Katie said she reads out praise to her son from strangers when she posts pictures he's drawn. "He gets excited. Why should that be taken away from him?"

"I'm not going to sit here and hide him away when I'm proud of the man he's become and want him to be treated the same as everybody else."

Katie launched Harvey's Law in 2017 to try and make online bullying a crime (Instagram)

Katie's campaign for Harvey's Law has been gaining momentum since it was set up three years ago.

After being horrified at the abuse levelled at her disabled son, Katie went to the police for justice only to be told the trolls couldn't be charged with anything.

So in 2017 Katie launched established Harvey's Law in honour of her son and started a petition to get online abuse recognised as a crime.

"This does not affect just high profile people it affects everyone from every walk of life from young children, teenagers, people at work, husbands and wives," the petition read.

In just a few days of going live, Katie's petition gained more than 200,000 signatures.

Following the huge support, Katie was invited to the Commons Petitions Committee last year where she said: "Online is the future, and I just think there needs to be more security checks.”

Last month, cruel online bullies even tried to sabotage posts dedicated to Harvey on his 18th birthday.

Katie's ex husband Kieran has continued to support Harvey despite his marriage to the glamour model ending (PA)
Kieran recently fired back at a troll who tried to make fun of Harvey on his 18th birthday (Katie Price/Instagram)

After being alerted to the horrible messages, Katie's ex husband Kieran Hayler jumped to Harvey's defence.

Kieran outed the account by tagging the troll and branding them 'absolutely disgusting' and 'vile'.

"You are absolutely disgusting. Vile human," he fumed. "How dare you hide behind that keyboard and write sch nasty things about such a beautiful, nice natured boy. Harvey does not have a bad bone in his body. Leave him alone."

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