Erin Molan is no stranger to online abuse. But when a social media troll began bombarding her with vile messages, telling her he hoped that she died while giving birth to her daughter, it was the final straw.
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Molan took the case to the police and the man was eventually hit with an eight-month suspended jail sentence.
"This case was extreme and ticked all the boxes required for the specific charge," Molan said.
Most cases of online abuse, bullying and harassment do not though.
It is why the former Canberra television presenter is leading a new push to toughen up cyber abuse laws.
The Nine star took the fight back to Canberra last week, meeting with Prime Minister Scott Morrison and her father, NSW Liberal senator Jim Molan.
"This isn't about me. These 'people' don't hurt me anymore. I'm fighting for everyone else. For those who have lost loved ones. For our children. For those who don't have a voice," Molan said.
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Molan is certainly not alone. Research from Amnesty International found 30 per cent of women surveyed had experienced abuse or harassment online. Forty per cent of women said the online abuse was misogynistic or sexist in nature.
Nine months ago, Communications Minister Paul Fletcher unveiled proposals for a new Online Safety Act.
The laws would set up a new take-down scheme to tackle the cyber abuse of Australian adults and give the eSafety Commissioner new powers to force online service providers to remove harmful content within 24 hours.
"Serious online abuse of an Australian is not acceptable - no matter that person's age," Mr Fletcher told the Press Club last December.
"Industry needs to step up and take more responsibility."
However the push seems to have stagnated since industry consultation ended in February.
The Communications Alliance, Australia's main telecommunications industry body, said much like governments laid down rules to keep people safe on the roads, they needed to apply certain standards to make the online world safe too.
However the proposals attracted concern from other parties.
NSW Privacy Commissioner Samantha Gavel said the laws did not give the victim of online abuse or cyber bullying a right of action against the perpetrator of that abuse.
"Considering the significant potential impacts arising from cyber bullying and other forms of online abuse - including loss of employment, damage to reputation or emotional distress - consideration should be given to whether the new scheme should include a statutory cause of action for the serious invasion of the individuals privacy arising from cyberbullying and online abuse," Ms Gavel said.
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Twitter said requiring material to be taken down within 24 hours would not give the networks enough time to carry out the necessary procedural checks, like having a human review the content and providing the user with notice.
"We believe the government would want these procedural protections in place to guard against potential overreach and protect freedom of expression for Australians," Twitter said.
Facebook said requiring abuse to be taken down within 24 hours may have unintended consequences, "such as incentivising investment to respond more to content removal instead of investment in technology to reduce the prevalence of harmful online content".
However Sex Discrimination Commissioner Kate Jenkins said the swift removal of abusive and harmful images could minimise long-term harm.
"Currently, the main way to respond to abuse and threats is to approach the police," Ms Jenkins said.
"I recommend a mechanism in the proposed Act to provide quick, practical responses, without removing workplace or criminal options.
"The image-based abuse system response has been very successful in providing a quick, practice and gender sensitive response to image-based abuse."
Molan, though, said perpetrators needed to be held accountable for their behaviour.
She said laws that exist in the real world should exist online.
"There is no longer a distinction... online is no longer a choice," Molan said.
"Think about the domestic violence laws. It is against the law to 'verbally' and 'emotionally' abuse your partner... but online you can do it to a perfect stranger.
"We'd never tell a victim of domestic violence to 'just ignore it' or 'don't listen to it' - we shouldn't be telling victims of online abuse that either.
"Until there is a strong deterrent this will continue to be a massive issue that will only get worse."
