DWYFOR Meirionnydd’s MP, Liz Saville Roberts, has called on the UK Government to take immediate steps to ensure police forces in Wales have sufficient capacity to deal with social media and hate crime.

Mrs Saville Roberts said that police forces were on the verge of being ‘overwhelmed’ with ever increasing reports of online bullying, cyber-harassment and crimes directly associated with online dating platforms.

Figures from the Office for National Statistics reveal a sevenfold increase in the number of crimes being committed in England and Wales where social media was cited as a contributory factor.

The reported crimes included rape, grooming and attempted murder.

Questioning Home Office ministers, Mrs Saville Roberts, Plaid Cymru’s Home Affairs and Justice spokesperson, called on the government to ensure that all police officers in Wales are provided with sufficient capacity to make risk-based assessments of online crimes and prioritise cases appropriately.

She said: “There is an urgent need for twenty-first century police methods to deal with twenty-first century crimes.

“The rising popularity of social media and the ease by which individuals can exploit vulnerable people is fast making digital platforms a vehicle to propagate abuse.

“Both the chief constable leading on digital crime and the head of the College of Policing have expressed fears that the force is on the verge of being overwhelmed, with reports of online abuse via social media channels such as Facebook, on the increase.

“I had a constituent whose eleven year old daughter was groomed over a gaming chat room by someone pretending to be a child.

“She only found out about the incident when her son became suspicious of the language being used and sensed something was wrong.

“This is indicative of the wider problem; often parents are not familiar with fast-changing social media platforms and to be frank, neither are many of the police.

“The organisation ‘Kick Rascism out of Football’ reported a staggering 130,000 incidents of racial abuse committed through social media channels in 2014/15.

“The government need to take immediate steps to ensure that all police officers in England and Wales are provided with sufficient resources and training to assess reports of online abuse and prioritise the most serious cases.”