Northamptonshire crimes involving social media more than double

Huge rise in Instagram-related crimes
Crimes involving social media have increasedCrimes involving social media have increased
Crimes involving social media have increased

The number of crimes in Northamptonshire involving popular social media platforms has more than doubled in just two years.

Data released by the county's police force under Freedom of Information laws revealed the number of crime reports with Facebook, Twitter, Instagram or WhatsApp in the MO (modus operandi).

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Between February 2017 and 2018 that figure was just 523 - but data from between February 2019 and February 2020 highlighted 1,193 crimes. Some of the crime reports involved more than one social media app.

A Northamptonshire Police spokesman said: “More and more people are using social media these days and while it is a great tool to connect with people and communicate with friends and family, it can also be used as a platform for criminals to commit crime.

“The crimes we see taking place on social media are far-ranging – from fraud and harassment to grooming and child sexual exploitation.

“Please talk to your children about how they can safely use social media, as well as ensuring your own online activity is appropriate and that you remain vigilant of what you post and of anything you see that may be suspicious.”

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There was a rise in crime reports involving all four apps over the space of two years.

Instagram showed the sharpest increase. For 2017-2018 police had just 84 reports involving the app - but by 2019-20 that had jumped to 323.

Facebook, unsurprisingly, had the largest number of reports. The number of crimes involving the site increased from 418 to 756.

Crimes involving WhatsApp increased from 43 to 139 with Twitter crime reports rising from seven to 19.