FOI 786-2024 / Sep 2024 / IIOC
FREEDOM OF INFORMATION REQUEST REFERENCE NO: 786-2024
I write in connection with your request for information which was received on 3rd September 2024 as follows:
- a) The total number of recorded offences of indecent images (still or moving) of children and prohibited images of children for the period 1 April 2023 to 31 March 2024.
- b) The number of recorded offences which related to pseudo images of children.
- c) The total number of recorded offences where an Artificial Intelligence (AI) generated child abuse image was detected.
- d) For each offence for the period 1 April 2023 to 31 March 2024 please break it down by the platform used to commit the offence where known using the following key word search: Snapchat, Facebook/Messenger, Instagram, WhatsApp, X/Twitter, Kik, TikTok, YouTube, Discord, Skype, Facetime, Roblox, Oculus, VR, Metaverse, Only Fans, Signal, iCloud, iMessage, Dropbox, Mega, Patreon, other social media or messaging site, other cloud storage site and online gaming.
Please accept my sincere apologies for the delay in providing the response to your request and for any inconvenience that this may have caused you. Please find the Warwickshire Police response set out below.
Response: Please be advised that some of the requested information is not centrally recorded and is therefore not held in a readily retrievable format.
Offences classified under Home Office offence category 86 – Obscene Publications:
- 86/2 - ‘Take/Make/Distribute indecent photographs or pseudo-photographs, of children’
- 86/10 - ‘Possession of an indecent or pseudo-photograph of a child’
- 86/15 - ‘Possessing prohibited images of children’
The above offences can all relate to photographs or pseudo-photographs/pseudo images of children. Therefore, in order to determine a response to Qb of the request, it would be necessary to manually review each and every offence on an individual basis.
Further, with regard to Qc, in order to determine whether it is detected that any offence involved an Artificial Intelligence (AI) generated child abuse image it would also be necessary to manually review each and every investigation on an individual basis.
During the stated period there is a total of 514 offences recorded and, at a minimum of 5 minutes per record to review for the two elements above, such searches would equate to a minimum of 43 hours of work. Therefore, this is above the amount to which we are legally required to respond, i.e., the cost of locating and retrieving the information exceeds the ‘appropriate level’ as stated in the Freedom of Information (Fees and Appropriate Limit) Regulations 2004. For Police forces in the UK, the "appropriate limit" is considered to be up to 18 hours of work on one request.
In accordance with Section 12(1) of the Freedom of Information Act 2000, this letter is a Refusal Notice for this part of the request, and, if one part of a request exceeds the fees limit, then Section 12 of the Act applies to the whole request.
In accordance with Section 16 of the Act, I have a duty to provide advice and assistance in relation to refining the request; however, due to the volume of records which require manual review, I am unable to advise of a way to revise these elements of your request into ones which could be dealt with within the fees limit.
I can advise that, should you wish to remove Qb and Qc, and resubmit your request, then it may be possible to provide information for the remainder (Qa and Qd) within the fees limit.
I have provided a link below which sets out information provided to a similar request for 2023, which may be of assistance in framing a resubmission of your request:
FOI 5-2024 / Jan 2024 / Indecent images | Warwickshire Police
Every effort has been made to ensure that the information provided is as accurate as possible.
Your attention is drawn to the below which details your right of complaint.
Should you have any further enquiries concerning this matter, please write or email the Freedom of Information Unit quoting the reference number above.
Yours sincerely
Freedom of Information Officer
Freedom of Information Unit
Warwickshire Police
PO Box 4
Leek Wootton
Warwickshire
CV35 7QB