A court's ruling that groping has to last at least 10 seconds for it to be considered sexual assault has been met with outrage by Italian media users.

The case dates to April of last year, when a 17-year-old student at a Rome high school reported 66-year-old caretaker Antonio Avola, to the police.

She claimed she was walking up a staircase when she felt her trousers being pulled down, a hand touching her bottom and grabbing her underwear.

A Rome public prosecutor asked for a three-and-a-half-year prison sentence but this week Avola was reportedly acquitted of sexual assault charges.

According to the court, the groping did not constitute a crime because it lasted less than 10 seconds.

Social media users have since then taken to Instagram and TikTok with the palpata breve (a brief groping) trend, along with a #10secondi hashtag.

The trend sees Italians looking at the camera in silence and touching their intimate parts for 10 seconds.

One of the first to use the hashtag was White Lotus actor Paolo Camilli and a very popular influencer Chiara Ferragni, who has 29.4 million followers on Instagram.