An online crime is committed every 10 minutes in England and Wales, shocking new figures show.
Official stats revealing the dangers of cyber space show police logged more than 55,000 internet-related offences in the space of a year, working out to an average of 150 a day.
The crimes recorded include child sex abuse allegations, harassment and blackmail. Fraud and computer misuse are not included in the statistics.
In April 2015, it became mandatory for police to return quarterly information on the number of crimes flagged as being either fully or partially committed online.
According to the latest findings, logged between July 2016 and June 2017, the number of web crimes rose by nearly 20,000 compared to the previous 12 months. However the data sources were not identical for both periods.
Statisticians from the Office for National Statistics, which published the data, said the amount of cyber crime is only set to rise as identifying these sorts of offences improves.
Harassment and stalking made up the largest chunk of the online-flagged crimes, with 33,148 in the year to June. Around one in seven of all the offences recorded as harassment involved the internet.
Online-flagged offences account for only a small proportion of the total number of crimes registered by forces, which stood at around 4.5 million in the year to June, excluding fraud.
A report from the probation watchdog on Thursday detailed how social media is being used by young offenders to plan and incite serious offences.
There have been questions over how well equipped police are to confront the shift, with the HM Chief Inspector of Constabulary Sir Thomas Winsor warning forces are “all too often overwhelmed”.
Richard Garside, director of the Centre for Crime and Justice Studies, said: "Online-enabled offences make up only a small portion of all offences recorded by the police.
"Looking ahead, the challenge of preventing them and responding to them is only likely to grow. The police are only ever going to be able to play a small part in an effective response."
Additional reporting by Press Association.
