A POLICE boss said the challenges of dealing with ever-developing avenues of cybercrime is one of the hardest parts of the job, labelling it “invisible criminality”.

South Worcestershire Superintendent Damian Pettit said social media, in particular, means people can “commit offences in a heartbeat” and modern policing is still getting to grips with it.

The commander, who took over his new role last May, said: “The advent of all the different cyber avenues for invisible criminality, because you don’t see it do you, is a real challenge,” he said.

“When I joined the service, mobile phones were not that advanced – though they were certainly in existence, and the social media platforms hadn’t really come about.”

He said social media means offences like “indecent images of children, sexual grooming, sexting or fraud or threats to harm – comments like ‘I’m going to kill you’ on Facebook, technically that’s malicious communications”.

“It could be threats to kill, it’s taking seconds to write that and press send. It may take officers considerably more time to go and investigate that and bring people to justice – if that’s the root we need to take,” he continued.

He said he and his teams will always try to prioritise reports of potential harm to people, especially those who are vulnerable.

In recent years there have been calls for social media providers to crack down on cyberbullying, following numerous reports of related suicides, particularly among young people.

Jim Turner, head of King’s Hawford, believes young people “face challenges that we could not have imagined a few years ago”.

“In order to help them we start at a young age to teach children that the internet is an amazing resource but not all that they read will be true,” he said. “We teach them to keep their personal information safe and secure.

“We also teach children that what they put up on the internet is almost impossible to take down and therefore to think carefully before posting comments or submitting images.

“We talk to parents about the importance of having an interest in how their children are using social media.

“The most important thing is to assist children and families to be aware of all that the internet offers but also the potential dangers.”