TIKTOK CRIME LINK
Cops connect over 4,500 cases a year to social media site
POLICE are facing 12 cases linked to TikTok every day, including allegations of death threats, violence and child abuse images.
More than 4,500 reports made to forces last year related to the videosharing platform used by millions of people in the UK as young as 13.
Examples, uncovered in a Sunday Mirror survey, include perverts using the site to groom children and attacks on youngsters that are filmed and posted on the app.
Last night online child safety expert Jessica Chalmers called our findings shocking. She added:
“We must educate ourselves about social media apps and speak to our children about the potential dangers.”
We revealed last week how perverts set up accounts on
TikTok where schoolgirls posed for cash. They were allowed to operate for months – until we raised the alarm.
Our survey found that forces said TikTok was recorded as an element of the offence in relation to 4,559 crimes last year. This figure includes cases in which alleged crimes have been committed and videos have later been uploaded onto the platform.
But the true tally could be higher, as nine of Britain’s 44 forces could not provide figures. North Wales police stepped in when a man alledgedly used TikTok to send sexual messages to an eight-year-old boy. Cambridgeshire police were called when topless photos of an underage girl were reportedly posted by an ex.
Gloucestershire Police received a report from someone who was attacked and spat on by two boys, who then uploaded the footage.
Some criminals have been jailed this year in cases linked to the app. They include TikTok “star” Elsa Frost, 39, who was jailed for 18 weeks after she admitted sending vile messages to ex-Desperate Scousewives star Chelsey Harwood.
Sefton magistrates heard Frost, of Wigan, had more than 20,000 TikTok followers. The cases put more pressure on the Government to prioritise the Online Safety Bill.
Andy Burrows, of the NSPCC, said: “The nature and scale of crimes connected to TikTok is deeply concerning.” He said children are being harmed across a range of social media and urged the next PM to make delivering the Online Safety Bill a priority.
Chinese-owned TikTok is worth more than £60billion. A spokesman said: “At TikTok, we take our responsibility to keep our community safe incredibly seriously and work closely with local law enforcement to support them in keeping the wider public safe.
“While we can’t comment on the accuracy of the figures obtained by the Mirror, it is not a measure of crime on TikTok – and includes, for example, the many occasions on which we have assisted local law enforcement.”