Revenge Porn in UK Affecting Girls as Young as 11

Children as young as 11 are victims of revenge porn, new figures have revealed.

Since 2012, eight police forces in England and Wales received 149 allegations of revenge porn but only six cases led to a police caution or charge.

The remaining 35 forces do not record the data - sparking fears offenders are getting away with humiliating their victims.

"I feel this is just the tip of the iceberg," said Laura Higgins, manager of the UK Safer Internet Centre helpline.

"Plenty of people, particularly young people, won't want to go down the police route or even speak about them at all, so many incidents are going unnoticed.

"Our research shows that for every site we find, there are potentially dozens with those images on which the victim has no idea about. We are living in an age where technology is a part of our everyday lives, and children are becoming sexualised at a younger age."

A girl of 11 and two other female teenagers in Manchester were among the victims in the 149 reports in England and Wales obtained by the Press Association. Another girl was aged 13 from Thames Valley.

A schoolboy in Cambridge distributed naked photos of another pupil on Facebook and to other friends in the playground, while another boy threatened to share images of a pupil's older sister on social networking sites. There were also two 15-year-old victims in Leicestershire.

Convictions were carried out under the malicious communications act.

But police in the UK are still powerless to act against perpetrators until new laws are passed through the Lords next month. Revenge porn could also be added to the Sexual Offences Act so offenders can be put on the sexual offenders' register.

Maria Miller, the former culture secretary, who previously raised the issue in parliament, said: "We have to send out a very strong message that posting exceptionally explicit images online is completely unacceptable. People shouldn't have to face this degrading treatment."

Revenge porn legislation has been introduced in California, Texas and Utah.