Teens warned over revenge porn

Hundreds of children and teenagers are among those warned or prosecuted for revenge porn.

People under the age of 19 now account for a third of the more than

2000 offenders police have dealt with since 2017.

Police figures obtained by RNZ under the Official Information Act show the number of reports of people sharing intimate or explicit images without the subject’s permission has more than doubled in five years.

Last year, victims reported nearly

1400 cases to police, a jump from 660 in 2017. In the first six months of this year alone there were 665 reports.

Police sexual assault and child protection manager David Kirby attributes this to people spending more time online.

“It’s consistent with the increased use of social media, the increased awareness of this whole area.”

Despite the big jump in reported cases, the figures show action against offenders has barely changed, at about 400 to 450 proceedings a year.

Last year police prosecuted 214 offenders, warned 123, and used other approaches, such as referral to youth services for a further 58. In the first six months of this year, police took action on 145 cases, compared to 319 for the entire year of 2017.

But despite this, Detective Inspector Kirby said the prosecution rate was good. “There’s a prosecution there of around 50 per cent. Prosecution in all other sexual cases . . . is around 30-33 per cent so I actually say this prosecution is really high.”

Most of the offenders are male and they include a high proportion of children. Since 2017 police have taken action against more than 250 children between the ages of 10 and 14.

Neither police nor Oranga Tamariki would comment on why minors and teenagers are committing these crimes.