Winnipeg teen charged after 'intimate' photo shared on social media

A 17-year-old has been charged after an "intimate"image of another teen was posted to social media.

A 17-year-old female contacted police in September about a photo of her on social media. She said the photo had been taken about a month earlier.

"Whether it's one image or whether it's four images, we all know that as soon as that image is uploaded it can be shared hundreds of times within minutes. The impact on the victim is huge," said Const. Tammy Skrabek. "They can't always be removed from social media. They can't always be tracked."

More than a month later on Oct. 23, the police service's Internet Child Exploitation unit saw a Cybertip.ca report that confirmed the victims' image had been shared.

On Monday, a 17-year-old male was arrested and charged with distributing an intimate image without consent.

Skrabek said Winnipeg police are seeing severalof these cases.

"A lot of the incidents that we're seeing are as a result of bullying, so you may have two people in a partnership, in a relationship, something goes bad, one says to the other, 'I have this image. I'm going to post it online as a way of getting back at you,'" she said.

She said police wouldn't typically share information with the public about an online image when two teens are involved, but they felt it was necessary to bring the issue to the public's attention.

"It is an offence for anyone under 18 to possess a photo of this nature and to share a photo of this nature and to produce a photo of this nature," said Skrabek."Having it can and will result in a criminal charge."