Hundreds of children investigated for Twitter abuse and bullying each year, new figures reveal

More than 2,000 children, some as young as nine, have been investigated by the police in the last three years over comments they have posted on Twitter and other social networking sites, new figures have revealed.

Police forces have reported a massive rise in the number of cases they are now being forced to investigate with many struggling to cope with the extra workload.

More than 1,300 children have been charged with a criminal offence or have received a caution, warning or fine over the same period, amid mounting concern that youngsters are being criminalised over behaviour that should not be a matter for the police.

In addition, almost 20,000 adults were investigated for similar offences – the equivalent of almost 20 new cases every day – according to figures obtained by Sky News under the Freedom of Information Act.

Police forces were asked to provide figures on the number of investigations they had launched under the Communications Act 2003 section 127, which covers the sending of grossly offensive or indecent messages.

The figures revealed that since 2011 a total of 1,932 children had been investigated with 1,203 going on to be charged, formally cautioned, fined or warned.

Over the same period 19,279 adults were investigated with 11,292 having some sort of police action taken against them.

However with only two thirds of the police forces responding to the FOI request, the true figure is likely to be even higher.

Experts put the rise down to the popularity of sites such as Twitter, Facebook and Ask.fm and the ease with which people can remain in touch with the Internet around the clock.

But investigating online abuse is creating a headache for police forces, who have complained it is taking up so much time that they are unable to devote resources to more serious crimes.

Such was the concern at the growing number of cases that the CPS issued new guidance to prosecutors last year in an attempt to set which cases should be treated as potentially criminal.

In the guidance prosecutors were advised to look out for messages that constituted a “credible threat of violence to the person or damage to property”.

The advice also made clear that the age and maturity of suspects should be given significant weight, particularly if they are under the age of 18, stating that: “Children may not appreciate the potential harm and seriousness of their communications and a prosecution is rarely likely to be in the public interest.”

But despite this police forces are still being inundated with complaints that they are duty bound to take seriously.

According to the FOI figures, Hertfordshire police investigated and charged the most people in 2013 – 1042, up from 291 in 2011.

Overall, the Metropolitan police investigated and charged the most people over three years – 2099.

Four ten year olds and one nine year old in were given warnings by police.

In 2010, Paul Chambers was investigated and charged for a tweet in which he joked that he would blow Robin Hood airport “sky high”.

He was convicted, but appealed three times and finally had his conviction quashed in 2012, after a judge deemed that his message was not intended to be menacing.

In January this year, two people were found guilty of sending menacing messages to feminist campaigner Caroline Criado-Perez.

And earlier this month Robert Riley, 42, from Port Talbot was jailed for eight weeks for posting abusive Twitter messages about the death of schoolteacher Ann Maguire.

Luke Roberts, a social network expert at Beat Bullying, said. “There are more devices than ever. So whether it’s smartphones, Internet connected TVs, more apps – they allow more young people to be harassed than ever before.

“In terms of social networking, we’d like to see more transparency, in terms of giving clear reporting mechanisms to children and young people using those sites.

“But also importantly clear action, so that if a young person has the confidence to report something happening to them, they also know they’re going to receive a message, or action will be taken