Labour MP, who was a target of online abuse, says authorities and web companies need to use their resources to tackle issue

Trolling is still not being taken seriously enough by police and technology companies who already have the tools to take action against internet abusers, the Labour MP Stella Creasy has said.

Creasy, who was targeted three years ago by one of the most high-profile Twitter trolls to be jailed, said the key to dealing with online abuse was challenging the underlying inequality, misogyny and prejudice that fuels the problem.

But she also raised concerns that the authorities and internet firms are still not treating online crimes in the same way as they would do offline or realising that trolling amounts to harassment.

The senior Tory MP Maria Miller earlier this week called for an overhaul of internet legislation to stop online abuse, warning that it may be creating a “nightmare” for society in future.

But Creasy, a former shadow crime prevention minister, argued the laws already exist to tackle trolling and said police must examine such allegations as harassment, rather than solely looking at whether they are malicious communications offences.

“We do have legislation and it was very frustrating for me as a victim of this stuff who had worked on harassment legislation ... I am particularly frustrated with the police and CPS because I still don’t think they get it in terms of making it a harassment issue, not a malicious content issue.

“If someone sends you flowers, if it’s someone you’ve asked never to contact you again, that’s really creepy. But online, unless they’ve said they want to rape or murder you, the police and CPS don’t get it.”

Speaking to the Guardian, Creasy said a culture change was needed to make sure victims of online abuse were taken seriously. Telling victims of harassment to stop feeding the trolls or remove their online presence was comparable to asking women to dress differently or stop going out at night, she said.

“At the heart of this, it’s not the technology, it’s the inequality. Just as 40 years ago people wanted to define when women could walk the streets, what they could wear and where they could go, it’s exactly the same online. It’s not about the streets, or the technology, it’s about society,” she said.

“We have law that could be used but we have to change the frame of reference about it. It is still very much a case of when this stuff happens to you, you get told: ‘Don’t feed the trolls.’ Why is it up to me to find a way of dealing with it rather than them to stop doing it? Why should I not enjoy these types of communication? Just like you wouldn’t say to somebody: ‘Oh just don’t go out at night.’”

She also warned that technology companies would kill their own business models if they did not take online harassment more seriously, as people being targeted would retreat to other more private platforms.

Creasy is working with Yvette Cooper, the Labour MP and former shadow home secretary, on the campaign Reclaim the Internet, echoing the Reclaim the Night movement that has challenged the notion that female victims of violence should change their behaviour.

Creasy said the root of the problem could only be tackled by treating the online world the same as the offline world. “It is a pressure and backlash against the freedom that the internet offers people to speak, communicate and organise, which unfortunately an old-fashioned, endemic form of misogyny, discrimination and prejudice is trying to kill,” she said.

Creasy was personally targeted in 2013 when she came to the defence of Caroline Criado-Perez, a freelance journalist who received up to 50 rape threats an hour on Twitter in an avalanche of abuse after leading a campaign for women to be featured on banknotes.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Yvette Cooper is working with Creasy on Reclaim the Internet. Photograph: Oli Scarff/Getty Images

Other cases of high-profile women being trolled include: Kate Smurthwaite, a comedian who received 2,000 abusive tweets for objecting when a men’s rights activist called her “darling” in a TV debate; the historian Mary Beard, who received hundreds of messages attacking her appearance; and Emily Grossman, a scientist who took a break from social media after receiving so many hostile tweets when she talked about sexism in her profession.

Cooper and Creasy have also highlighted the less publicised plight of online abuse against some female social media users who are not public figures, citing teenagers who have stopped going into college, and women who have withdrawn from social media or have been forced to change their work after being bombarded with online attacks.

On Thursday, two Conservative MPs spoke in parliament to raise the issue of trolling, asking what measures are being taken to raise prosecution rates for cases of online abuse.

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Michael Fabricant, the MP for Lichfield, spoke of the 16-year-old son of a friend who had been trolled on Twitter, adding that “the poor boy has harmed himself, which is a serious matter”.

In response to their questions, Robert Buckland, the solicitor general, said the CPS was revising its social media guidelines and agreed that trolling could take a toll on mental health, especially that of young people.

He said: “Online abuse can sometimes be worse than face-to-face abuse, because it is all-pervading and does not end at the school gates or allow for privacy at home. The director of public prosecutions has met several social media providers, and the CPS will continue to work with them on measures to improve the reporting and prosecution of such abuse.”