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Reported cases of “revenge porn”, the sharing of explicit or sexual images without consent, have risen markedly, with alleged victims ranging from 11-year-olds to pensioners, an investigation has found.
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Two thirds of incidents involved females aged under 30, with suspects mainly former partners. There were eight female complainants to every one male.
Figures obtained under freedom of information (FOI) requests show 14 police forces in England and Wales recorded a total of 139 revenge porn allegations in the six months to April 2015, with 10 victims under the age of consent.
This period immediately followed the publication of guidelines by the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) in October on how to prosecute the crime within existing legislation until it was made a specific criminal offence in April as part of the Criminal Justice and Courts Act.
But the figures are likely to be the tip of the iceberg, with only one third of police forces in England and Wales holding details on complaints for the six months before the new law was introduced.
The investigation, by the Press Association news agency, showed there was also a rise in police action following the CPS guidelines, a move welcomed by campaigners.
A previous investigation by the news agency showed 149 incidents collated by eight police forces over an 18-month period, between January 2012 and June 2014, with many perpetrators evading justice due to loopholes in the law. Just six people had been cautioned or charged over the 18-month period, compared to 13 charged in the most recent six-month period.
Sarah Green, acting director of the End Violence Against Women coalition, said: “These statistics show it is likely that awareness of so-called revenge pornography has grown and that victims likely feel more confident that this crime will be taken seriously if reported.”
Urging police and courts to continue the pursuit of perpetrators, she said the government needed to step up efforts to prevent “this kind of abuse in the first place”, by ensuring “all young people get good quality sex and relationships education in school, where they talk about respect and equality and the law on consent and abuse”.
Allegations reported to Cheshire police included topless pictures of a 12-year-old girl posted on Facebook and a 13-year-old girl who discovered images of herself topless and in underwear used to set up a fake Facebook account.
In Hertfordshire, recorded cases included a man in his 40s cautioned for harassment after sending naked photos of his former girlfriend to her boss, and a teenage boy accused of blackmailing his former girlfriend by threatening to publish nude pictures of her online.
A 39-year-old man contacted Leicestershire police after an unknown women persuaded him to perform a sex act over a webcam, then blackmailed him to send cash or risk the video being uploaded to the internet.
Related: Revenge porn does not only try to shame women – it tries to silence them too
Two older victims, a man aged 61 and a woman, 67, both contacted Northamptonshire police to complain about images involving them, and in both cases the suspects were their former partners. The same force recorded complaints from 13 victims aged between 11 and 19.
Before April, people could be prosecuted under harassment and indecency laws.
Jef McAllister at London-based law firm McAllister Olivarius, which represents sex abuse victims, said: “The CPS guidelines, plus the new law banning revenge pornography and the surrounding publicity, have clearly encouraged victims to come forward”.
But more needed to be done. “Websites that encourage and profit from revenge pornography are not covered by the law, victims usually can’t get the material taken down unless they own the copyright, and less than 10% of allegations result in a caution or a charge.
“We’d like to see a parallel civil law introduced, to permit victims to sue perpetrators for damages and to take out injunctions against them.” This could give victims more options “as in many cases, women do not want to criminalise the men they once loved”.
The 14 police forces who provided details to the Press Association were: Cheshire, Dyfed Powys, Essex, Greater Manchester, Hertfordshire, Humberside, Leicestershire, Merseyside, North Yorkshire, Northamptonshire, Northumbria, South Wales, Thames Valley and West Yorkshire. The remaining forces either had no record of any complaints or refused to provide data due to FOI time limits, the agency said.
Related: Revenge porn: why the right to be forgotten is the right remedy
Revenge porn is legally defined as the sharing of private, often sexual or explicit material, either photos or videos, of another person with the purpose of causing embarrassment or distress, and carries a jail term of up to two years and a fine. Campaigners want the law updated to mean people can be convicted regardless of whether they intend to cause embarrassment or distress.
A CPS spokesman said: “Revenge porn is a particularly nasty crime and we have been bringing successful cases to court for some years under existing legislation.
“The term was included in CPS legal guidance, as it became apparent this type of offending was growing, in order to make it clear to police and prosecutors which legislation could be used to prosecute.
“The new offence has added to the powers available to prosecutors, and the CPS will use this legislation to bring the strongest possible cases to court.”
