Over the weekend all newspapers carried reports that the Ministry of Justice would be seeking to change the law about 'internet trolls' and increasing the prison sentence from 6 months to 2 years. Below I have provided links to three documents from the Ministry of Justice. One is a news item that was released today together with a Fact Sheet and the second link is to the updated Impact Assessment (from July 2014) that was also released today. One change is to amend Section 127 of the Communications Act 2003 so as to extend the time for prosecutions of offences. But the main change is to : Section 1 of the Malicious Communications Act 1988. This section covers the sending.....delivering....or transmitting of any letters, or electronic communications (on forums, blogs or any social media etc) or any other article which could include, for example,photographs and recordings that are indecent, grossly offensive or which convey a threat or: information which the sender knows or believes to be false. It also covers the sending of such articles which are, in whole or part, of an indecent or grossly offensive nature. Crucially, in each case there must be an intention on the part of the sender (or person writing the article to “cause distress or anxiety” to the person who receives the communication. At present, an offence under section 1 of the Malicious Communications Act 1988 of sending certain articles with intent to cause "distress or anxiety" is a summary-only offence with a maximum penalty of just six months imprisonment, a fine of £5,000, or both. Most importantly, at present, prosecutions must commence within a very strict time period of just six months from the date of the offence being committed. This short period of time is to increase and the Ministry of Justice stated yesterday that this will allow for police investigating internet offences such as 'trolling' to obtain "evidence from internet service providers based abroad"* The changes to section 1 of the Malicious Communications Act have been brought by amending the Criminal Justice Bill to make the offence in section 1 of the Malicious Communications Act 1988 an 'either way offence' and increasing the maximum penalty to 2 years imrisonment or an unlimited fine, or both. In 2012, there were approx 750 proceedings under Section 1 of the 1988 Malicious Communications Act and of those proceeded against nearly 10% were given immediate custodial sentences. https://www.gov.uk/government/news/internet-trolls-to-face-2-years-in-prison https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/321285/malicious-communicationss-impact-assessment.pdf https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/322204/fact-sheet-malicious-communications.pdf