THE Chief Constable of Durham Police has called for more to be done to tackle 'social media trolls', saying he is becoming increasingly concerned about the amount of time his officers have to spend dealing with harassment and abuse through social media.

Mike Barton called on the bosses of Facebook and Twitter to ban trolls in an open letter posted online.

Mr Barton said national statistics showed a 40 per cent increase in the number of people charged for “improper use of electronic messages” between 2010 and 2013 in England, from 506 to 708.

However, a study carried out by Durham Police using 'cyber keywords' identified 2,962 incidents during a three month period last year, equating to an average 230 incidents a month.

Mr Barton added: "The challenge for us is distinguishing when these online disputes/insults become a crime.

"As we attempt to deal with unprecedented cuts in policing, more and more time is spent by my officers dealing with online rows and abuse where we have no real chance of any prosecution.

"Regularly I am told by beat officers that they are visiting the homes of people whose child has been called names by another child on Twitter or Facebook. It is not a pleasant incident, but is this what the public would like my officers to spend their time doing?"

Twitter chief executive Dick Costolo admitted recently that the company is not doing enough to tackle harassment and abuse, saying “We suck at dealing with abuse and trolls on the platform.”

Mr Barton said he welcomed that acknowledgement and encouraged Mr Costolo to start taking a tougher stance on online troublemakers.

He said: "Put simply, if people can’t behave online then Dick Costolo and his colleagues should remove the privilege of Twitter and other social media channels and kick them off."