“I’m used to people trolling me, but because I don’t respond to them, they saw an opportunity to target Leo instead.”
Former X Factor star Jake Quickenden has spoken out about the horrific trolling that his partner Sophie Church has received regarding their son Leo, with one message asking Church “why don’t you drown your baby?”
Quickenden has previously discussed the abuse that he and his family have received in the past, and is now calling for laws surrounding social media to change to help prevent such abuse.
Speaking to New magazine, via OK, Quickenden said: “It really shocked me. I’m used to people trolling me, but because I don’t respond to them, they saw an opportunity to target Leo instead.
“It hurt, but you have to ask yourself, “Why are people doing this?” Sophie received one saying, ‘Why don’t you drown your baby?’ Something must change with the online laws.”
In March, Quickenden posted an emotional post on Instagram calling out trolls who send him and his partner abuse directed at their baby.
The post read: “REAL POST… So in the past week this little man has been told he needs Botox, that he’s ugly as f**k and that he’s weird looking, me myself have also been told stay off social media if you don’t want to be trolled.
“It’s so baffling to me that I should have to stay off social media if I don’t want my four-week-old trolled. ‘I don’t mind people giving me s**t, as sad as it is I’ve had to get used to being called ‘irrelevant’, ‘ugly’, ‘attention seeking’ and the list goes on but to troll an innocent child is so wrong and the people doing it seriously need to seek help.”
https://www.instagram.com/p/CM3_C2ZDUeu/?utm_source=ig_embed
He’s not the only high-profile figure calling for change surrounding social media laws. Premier League clubs and many other sports organisations recently took part in a social media blackout from 30 April to 3 May in protest against racist abuse that players receive online.
Meanwhile Katie Price has been campaigning for years to get ‘Harvey’s Law‘ passed, a proposed bill that would make it illegal to troll or abuse others online.
Under the proposed law, trolling would be made a punishable offence and a registry of known trolls would be made available to the public.
