Half of UK 10-year-olds own a smartphone
Fifty per cent of the UK's 10-year-olds owned a smartphone in 2019, according to a report by media regulator Ofcom.
New figures show that there is an online crime committed every 10 minutes in England and Wales.
Official stats show that crimes reported to the Police totalled more than 55,000 internet-related offences in the space of a year, working out to an average of 150 a day.
The crimes recorded include child sex abuse allegations, harassment and blackmail. Fraud and computer misuse are not included in the statistics. Separate figures estimate 5 million cases of fraud and computer misuse offences in the same recording period.
According to the latest findings, for between July 2016 and June 2017, the number of web crimes rose by nearly 20,000 compared to the previous 12 months. However, the data sources were not identical for both periods.
Statisticians from the Office for National Statistics, which published the data, said the amount of cyber crime is only set to rise as identifying these sorts of offences improves.
Harassment and stalking made up the largest chunk of the online-flagged crimes, with 33,148 in the year to June. Around one in seven of all the offences recorded as harassment involved the internet.
More information on stalking and harassment can be found here.
Online-flagged offences account for only a small proportion of the total number of crimes registered by forces, which stood at around 4.5 million in the year to June, excluding fraud.
If you are affected by any kind of online crime, you can get emotional support and advice from Warwickshire Victim Support online, or on 01926 682 693.
