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Sexting U18 - 044/18

Date Responded 19 January 2018

Provision of information held by Northumbria Police made under the Freedom of Information Act 2000 (the 'Act')

As you may be aware the purpose of the Act is to allow a general right of access to information held at the time of a request, by a Public Authority (including the Police), subject to certain limitations and exemptions.

You asked:

Can you please tell me the number of children under the age of 18 who have been investigated in the last two years by your force for "sexting" activities – that is sending or sharing explicit or naked pictures of themselves on social media or text messaging services to others. I just want information from the past two years. Can you please separate the information so it is clear which is the most recent 12 months? Jan-Dec 2016 and Jan-Dec 2017. In each case please state:

1. The age of the child at the time of the offence and their gender

2. The outcome, ie. no further action, police caution, charged, ongoing

3. The medium used to send explicit content (for example: text message, Twitter, Facebook)

4. Whether the child who sent the material was added to the sex offenders’s register.

5. If possible please include the age of the recipient of the explicit material as well as the sender.

 I am aware that you will not record specific offences under the category "sexting". I believe the most appropriate offences to search within is distributing or publishing an indecent image(s) of a child under s1 of the Protection of Children Act, 1978. It would then require a search within those offences or reported offences carried out by children to isolate those cases in which a child sent an image of themselves to another person.

In Response:

We have now had the opportunity to fully consider your request and I provide a response for your attention. Following receipt of your request, searches were conducted with the Corporate Development Department of Northumbria Police. I can confirm that the information you have requested is held by Northumbria Police.

 I am able to disclose the located information to you as attached.

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Disclaimer

Due to the different methods of recording information across 43 forces, a specific response from one constabulary should not be seen as an indication of what information could be supplied (within cost) by another. Systems used for recording these figures are not generic, nor are the procedures used locally in capturing the data. For this reason responses between forces may differ, and should not be used for comparative purposes.

The information we have supplied to you is likely to contain intellectual property rights of Northumbria Police. Your use of the information must be strictly in accordance with the Copyright Designs and Patents Act 1988 (as amended) or such other applicable legislation. In particular, you must not re-use this information for any commercial purpose.

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