FOI 0528-2024/25- Deepfake porn

Request:

Clarification

Would you please be able to do the former (custody and crime data)? If this goes over the time/ price limit would you please be able to filter instead?

Original request

Q1. For each of the months February, March, April, May, June, July and August 2024, how many reports did your police force receive alleging the offence of sharing explicit images or videos that have been digitally manipulated to look like someone else without their consent, commonly known as ‘fake porn’ or ‘deepfake porn’ (covered by the Online Safety Act 2023)?

Q2. Given there could be multiple reports about one individual, I am also asking the following question. For each of the months February, March, April, May, June, July and August 2024, how many individuals did your police force receive allegations about relating to the offence of sharing explicit images or videos that have been digitally manipulated to look like someone else without their consent, commonly known as ‘fake porn’ or ‘deepfake porn’ (covered by the Online Safety Act 2023).

Q3. For each of the months February, March, April, May, June, July and August 2024, how many people were charged under the Online Safety Act with the offence of sharing explicit images or videos that have been digitally manipulated to look like someone else without their consent, commonly known as ‘fake porn’ or ‘deepfake porn’?

Q4. Given one individual could be charged with multiple offences, I am also asking the following question. For each of the months February, March, April, May, June, July and August 2024, how many charges were made by your police force under the Online Safety Act of the offence of sharing explicit images or videos that have been digitally manipulated to look like someone else without their consent, commonly known as ‘fake porn’ or ‘deepfake porn’?

Q5. Among the reports of victims of ‘deepfake porn’ for each of the months February, March, April, May, June, July and August 2024, how many were under the age of 18?

Q6. Among the reports of victims of ‘deepfake porn’ for each of the months February, March, April, May, June, July and August 2024, how many were under the age of 10?

For clarity, for the questions above, I am asking for charges under the following law, Section 66B, Sexual Offences Act:

(1) A person (A) commits an offence if –

(a) A intentionally shares a photograph or film which shows, or appears to show, another person (B) in an intimate state,

(b) B does not consent to the sharing of the photograph or film, and

(c) A does not reasonably believe that B consents.

Full legislation is here: https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2003/42/section/66B

Q7. For each of the months August, September, October, November and December 2023 and January and February 2024, how many reports did your police force receive alleging the offence of deepfake sexual abuse under other legislation (before the Online Safety Act 2023 came into force) – e.g. communication offences or harassment legislation?

Q8. Given there could be multiple reports about one individual, I am also asking the following question. For each of the months August, September, October, November and December 2023 and January and February 2024, how many individuals did your police force receive allegations about relating to the offence of deepfake sexual abuse under other legislation (before the Online Safety Act 2023 came into force)?

Q9. For each of the months August, September, October, November and December 2023 and January and February 2024, how many people were charged with the offence of deepfake sexual abuse under other legislation (before the Online Safety Act 2023 came into force)?

Q10. Given one individual could be charged with multiple offences, I am also asking the following question. For each of the months August, September, October, November and December 2023 and January and February 2024, how many charges were made by your police force of the offence of deepfake sexual abuse under other legislation (before the Online Safety Act 2023 came into force)?

If it is not possible to provide the information requested due to the information exceeding the cost of compliance limits identified in Section 12, please prioritise questions in number order. Questions 1-6 should be prioritised over questions 7-10.

Response:

Extent and Result of Searches to Locate Information

To locate the information relevant to your request searches were conducted within North Yorkshire Police. I can confirm that the information you have requested is held by North Yorkshire Police.  

Decision

I have today decided to disclose the located information to you.

As per the clarification above - both searches have been carried out including a search of all custody and crime data as well as a search on MO remarks for ‘deepfake porn’ or ‘fake porn’ which provided the below results.

Q1. Zero

Q2-Q10. N/A

Please note that systems used for recording information are not generic, nor are the procedures used locally in capturing the data.  It should be noted therefore that this force’s response to your questions should not be used for comparison purposes with any other responses you may receive.