Chris Grayling, a member of Parliament and Justice Secretary, is looking to increase the penalty for online abuse from six months to two years in jail.

Grayling said in a statement: "The sending of abusive messages or material online can cause absolute misery for victims and we need to make sure that people who commit these awful crimes are properly punished. We already have offences in place to deal with this appalling behavior, but we've toughened up the law to make sure these crimes can be properly investigated and those who commit the most serious offences face a longer prison sentence."

The statute of limitations on reporting abuse and filing charges will also be extended from six months to three years.

What the law covers is "sending a letter, electronic communication or article of any description to another person, which is in nature, or which conveys a message which is, indecent or grossly offensive, or conveys a threat or false information, with the purpose of causing distress or anxiety to the recipient or to any other person to whom it is intended that its contents should be communicated."

The difficult part of the new law will be identifying the abusers. Tech-savvy Web users can easily cover their tracks, and few abusers make threats using accounts that bear their real names.