Number of north Wales crimes referencing TikTok rises 169% over three years
The number of crimes recorded by North Wales Police mentioning the social media platform TikTok rose from 39 in 2023 to 105 in 2025, according to a Freedom of Information response released this week.
In Flintshire, 34 police records over the three calendar years referenced the platform, including 10 cases where the victim was under the age of 18.
The force published the figures in response to a request for crimes recorded in 2023, 2024 and 2025 where the keyword TikTok appeared in the occurrence summary of its crime recording system.
Across north Wales, 199 cases were returned in total.
39 were recorded in 2023, 55 in 2024 and 105 in 2025.
That is a 41% rise between 2023 and 2024, followed by a 91% rise between 2024 and 2025.
In Flintshire, the local picture was steadier.
Flintshire North recorded seven cases in 2023, six in 2024 and five in 2025.
Flintshire South recorded two cases in 2023, seven in 2024 and seven in 2025.
The 34 Flintshire cases account for around 17% of the north Wales total.
Harassment was the most common offence recorded across the force area, accounting for 67 of the 199 cases.
In Flintshire, harassment accounted for 15 of the 34 local cases.
Other offences in the Flintshire data included malicious communications, stalking, blackmail, controlling and coercive behaviour, public fear alarm or distress, and obscene publications.
The figures show 52 of the 199 victims across north Wales were under the age of 18.
The number of under-18 victims rose sharply in 2025, with 33 cases compared with 10 in 2023 and nine in 2024.
In Flintshire, 10 of the 34 victims were under 18.
Five of those victims were aged under 13 and five were aged 13 to 17.
Across the three years, the force recorded three cases categorised as sexual grooming where TikTok was referenced.
All three were recorded in 2025.
A further 22 cases were categorised as obscene publications and protected sexual material, rising from four cases in 2023 to 10 in 2025.
The force noted in its response that the data was generated by a keyword search for “tik tok” within the occurrence summary of each crime record.
The data does not show that TikTok caused or directly enabled the offences.
A reference to the platform in a crime record can indicate the platform was used to send a message, where contact began, or that it was mentioned by a victim or officer for another reason.
The data does not include figures for other social media platforms such as Snapchat, Instagram or Facebook, which were not requested in the Freedom of Information response.
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