FOI reference: FOI-2025-3233
You asked
I want to find out what percentage of child sex offences, such as 'inciting a child 13-15 or under 13 to engage in sexual activity', have used platforms such as Snapchat or other popular websites.
We said
Thank you for your request.
Unfortunately, we do not hold all the information you have requested.
Our publications and data concern crime as it is experienced by victims, or as it is recorded by the police.
We publish data from two main sources, the Crime Survey for England and Wales (CSEW) and police recorded crime (PRC).
Data on the prevalence and nature of online experiences among children, using data from the 10- to 15-year-old's Crime Survey for England and Wales (CSEW), can be found in our Bullying and online experiences among children in England and Wales: year ending March 2023 publication, which includes data on children aged 13 to 15 years who reported receiving and sending sexual messages (Section 3 of article).
Due to the nature of the questions on sending and receiving images on the 10- to 15-year-olds' questionnaire, these questions were only asked to children aged 13 to 15 years, and therefore data are not held for children aged under 13 years.
Table 17 of our Children's online behaviour in England and Wales: year ending March 2023 appendix tables provides data on the proportion of children aged 13 to 15 years who reported receiving sexual messages and Table 24 provides data on the proportion who reported sending a sexual message. Table 19 specifically provides data on how children aged 13 to 15 years received any sexual messages. This includes photos, images, videos or text or voice notes that can be sent or received by a child through messages in online games, chatrooms, social media or any other online way.
In line with the Statistics and Registration Service Act 2007 (SRSA) we cannot, by law, disclose data that either directly or indirectly identifies a body corporate. Therefore, we can neither confirm nor deny whether we hold any data showing whether sexual messages received or were sent via Snapchat specifically in line with the exemption found under Section 44(2) of the Freedom of Information Act 2000 (FOIA).
For police recorded crime data, we publish data at offence category level. We do not hold police recorded crime data for specific offences, the media platforms the offences occurred on, or breakdowns by age group.
"Engage in sexual communication with a child" is a separate offence that sits within offence category 88A Sexual Grooming. The number of sexual grooming offences recorded by the police in England and Wales, up to the year ending March 2025, can be found in table 10 of the Sexual offences prevalence and victim characteristics, England and Wales: year ending March 2025 tables.
You can find further information on notifiable offences, including a breakdown of offence categories, in the Home Office Crime Recording Rules for frontline officers & staff.
Police recorded crime data are supplied to us by the Home Office. They may be able to assist you further and can be contacted at: CrimeandPoliceStats@homeoffice.gov.uk.
The Ministry of Justice are primarily responsible for data on offenders, and they publish statistics each quarter which can be accessed here. If you require any further information, the Ministry of Justice can be contacted directly via CJS_Statistics@justice.gov.uk.
If you have any further crime-related enquiries, the ONS Centre for Crime and Justice can be reached at the following e-mail address: CrimeStatistics@ons.gov.uk.