'Fake porn' or 'Deepfake porn' Offences 2024

Request

1. Between 1st February 2024 and 30th June 2024, how many reports did your police force receive alleging the offence of sharing explicit images or videos that have been digitally manipulated to look like someone else without their consent, commonly known as ‘fake porn' or 'deepfake porn' (covered by the Online Safety Act 2023).

Please include the number of alleged offences reported as well as the number of individuals i.e. if there were multiple reported offences against one individual.

2. Between 1st February 2024 and 30th June 2024, how many times did your police force charge someone under the Online Safety Act with the offence of sharing explicit images or videos that have been digitally manipulated to look like someone else without their consent, commonly known as ‘deepfake porn' although that term is not in the legislation.

Please include the number of charges as well as the number of individuals i.e. if one individual was charged with multiple offences.

For clarity and to help you locate the information, I am asking for charges under the following law, Section 66B, sexual offences Act:

66B
Sharing or threatening to share intimate photograph or film
(1)
A person (A) commits an offence if—
(a) A intentionally shares a photograph or film which shows, or appears to show, another person (B) in an intimate state,
(b) B does not consent to the sharing of the photograph or film, and
(c) A does not reasonably believe that B consents.

Full legislation is here:
https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2003/42/section/66B

Response

I approached our Crime Management Data Returns Administrator for assistance with your request. The Connect System is used to record complaints or allegations of those matters, which the Home Office specify should be recorded as ‘crime’.

They provided data and the following explanation of their search criteria:

Please see the response for FOI 24.011277

I have required the offences recorded under S66 B of the Sexual Offences Act 2003 as requested, it would require manual review to confirm whether they are in relation to ‘deep fakes’.

Criteria Used - Incident Created Date is between 01/02/2024 and 30/06/2024, SYP & crime only filter, ACT is equal to / is in Sexual Offences Act 2003 Sec 66 B (1) (9)

The above search returned 19 records, relating to the sharing of images.

I have reviewed the MO summary for each offence, and none relate to images or videos that have been digitally manipulated to look like someone else.

Our response to your request is Zero.

Please note, every effort is made to ensure that the figures presented are accurate and complete. However, it is important to note that data has been extracted from data sources used by this force for police purposes. The detail collected to respond specifically to your request is subject to the inaccuracies inherent in any large-scale recording systems and information assets.

The figures provided therefore are our best interpretation of relevance of data to your request, but you should be aware that the collation of figures/data for any requests may have limitations, and this should be taken into account when those data are used.

Police forces do not use generic systems or identical procedures for capturing the data. For these reasons this response to your questions should not be used for comparison purposes with responses you may receive from other police forces.