FOI Social Media Crimes (575-2024/25)

Request

Please could you provide me with the number of crimes reported that include

Q1. Harassment (with online/ cyber flag OR where key words “online gaming”, “online dating”, “WhatsApp”, “Tiktok”,“Instagram”, “snapchat” are used ) where the victim is under 18. –

Q2. Disclosure of private sexual photographs and videos with intent to cause distress (with a cyber flag OR where key words “online gaming”, “online dating”, “WhatsApp”, “Tiktok”, “Instagram”, “snapchat” are used) where the victim is under 18.

Q3.  Child sexual exploitation (with an online/cyber flag) where the victim is under 18.

Please provide annual figures for July 2021- july 2022, July 2022- july 2023, July 2023- July 2024.

Q4. If possible please provide the age of the youngest child involved in the reported crimes above.

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 some of the information you have requested is held by North Yorkshire Police.  

Decision

I am not obliged to provide you with a response to your request pursuant to Section 12(1) of the Freedom of Information Act 2000 (the Act). Please note that when one part of your request falls under Section 12, we are not obliged to review the rest of the questions and the whole request is therefore exempt.

Section 12(1) applies to your request as the cost of complying with your request is above the amount to which we are legally required to respond i.e. the cost of identifying and retrieving any relevant information exceeds the ‘appropriate level’ as stated in the Freedom of Information (Appropriate Limit and Fees) Regulations 2004.

Due to the nature of our recording systems the information requested, if held, is not in an easily retrievable format. Our information retrieval process generally relies on a computer ran report which captures any information recorded upon the surface of a record or within specified fields. Where relevant information is held deeper in the record, or outside of a specified field, a manual assessment is required to retrieve that information.

Due to the borad nature of child sexual exploitation, i order to retrieve the requested information, it would be necessary to manually review all crimes recorded within he period to determine which, if any are relevant to your request. This would involve thousands of reports, which would exceed the time limit allowed under the Act. 

Pursuant to Section 17(5) of the Freedom of Information Act this letter acts as a Refusal Notice to Q3 & Q4.

Pursuant to Section 16 of the Act I am required to offer you advice and assistance with regarding to refining your request to within the ‘appropriate limit’ (time/cost limit). However, due to the information provided above I am unable to suggest how you may refine your request and still receive the information within the cost threshold. As a gesture of goodwill I have decided to disclose the located information to you for Q1 & Q2. Please see below for the partial response.

Q1. Please see the table below which details the number of harassment crimes with a cyber flag recorded by North Yorkshire Police from 01 July 2021 to 31 July 2024, which include one or more of the terms online gaming”, “online dating”, “WhatsApp”, “Tiktok”,“Instagram”, “snapchat”, broken down by year.

Q2. Please see the table below which details the number of disclose private sexual photographs crimes with a cyber flag recorded by North Yorkshire Police from 01 July 2021 to 31 July 2024, which include one or more of the terms online gaming”, “online dating”, “WhatsApp”, “Tiktok”,“Instagram”, “snapchat”, broken down by year.

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.