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JAPAN / Crime & Legal

Record number of minors fell prey to social media crimes in 2016: NPA

Females accounted for 94.8 percent of the victims of sexual crimes through social media, and 86.9 percent of all victims used smartphones. | ISTOCK

Females accounted for 94.8 percent of the victims of sexual crimes through social media, and 86.9 percent of all victims used smartphones. | ISTOCK

Kyodo

Apr 20, 2017

The number of minors falling prey to sexual crimes through social media last year climbed to a record, police data released Thursday showed.

Social media apps have increasingly become the conduit through which these crimes occur, while incidents targeting underage people through chat services have declined, according to a report by the National Police Agency.

In 2016, 1,736 people under the age of 18 were targeted, exceeding the record set in 2015 by 84 and more than doubling the cases tallied in 2008, when police began keeping records.