Almost a quarter of alleged revenge porn victims in Kent who reported offences to police since last year were minors, newly released figures reveal.

Revenge porn is defined as the sharing of private sexual photographs or films of another person without their consent - with the intention of causing embarrassment or distress.

Nine people out of the 42 who reported crimes of this nature to Kent Police since it was criminalised in April 2015 were under 18.

In London, the Metropolitan Police split victims into age brackets, with 107 people reporting revenge porn to police being between 10 and 19 years of age.

In the year since the law came into effect, 453 people reported incidents of explicit images being shared without their consent to the Met.

The BBC obtained figures from 31 forces across England and Wales between April and December.

Their analysis shows that across the UK, children as young as 11 are among the 1,160 alleged victims of revenge porn.

In 68% of cases where social media was mentioned in reports, Facebook was used, followed by Instagram (12%) and Snapchat (5%).

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It also revealed that the average age of those claiming to be revenge porn victims was 25 and that some 61 per cent of reported offences resulted in no action being taken against the alleged perpetrator.

In around 11 per cent of cases, the alleged perpetrator was charged, in 7 per cent the reported offences resulted in a caution and in 5 per cent in a community resolution.

Sexual material covers anything that a reasonable person would consider to be sexual, which could be a picture of someone engaged in sexual behaviour or posing in a provocative way.

Before the law was introduced a year ago, existing copyright or harassment laws were used to seek convictions for this kind of offence.

An NSPCC spokesman said: “It is shocking that children as young as 11 are becoming victims of revenge porn – and underlines the urgent need for action by social media sites to improve safety.

“Young people also need to be aware of the serious risks of sending explicit material or photos of themselves. Once an image is sent there is no control over where it will end up or who will see it.

“Anyone who is concerned about their child can call the NSPCC helpline on 0808 800 5000.”