Even with child-porn charges filed in the case, Toronto police say they can do nothing to get a 16-year-old girl's nude photographs yanked off the Internet after her former boyfriend allegedly posted them in revenge for her reporting an extortion attempt.
"These pictures can never be retired," Det. Constable Chris Purchas told reporters April 22. "What's happening is, people are going on the Internet and copying them and reposting them on other websites [and] making other allegations slandering her character."
The former boyfriend, also 16, is charged with possessing and distributing child porn. The girl learned about the postings from friends two months ago and has not gone to school since. Purchas said police fear a trend in the making unless young girls begin to be more careful about whom they allow to photograph them.
Association of Sites Advocating Child Protection Executive Director Joan Irvine applauded the boy's arrest.
"It is sad that someone would be so cruel as to upload such pictures to the Internet," she told AVNOnline.com. "It is appropriate that this boy was arrested for the distribution of child pornography."
This suspect and the victim dated for a year before they broke up last October, according to a Canadian radio report.
"Twenty years ago, if a boyfriend had an off-color picture of a girlfriend and things didn't go well, the most he could do is photocopy it and put it on a bus shed or put it up around the school," Purchas remarked. "Now he has a worldwide forum at his fingertips."
Irvine agreed. "[I]t demonstrates that people should not have pictures taken or write emails that one would not want shared with others."
The images first turned up in February, around the time the girl went to police claiming the boy tried to extort money. Police believe he posted five nudes of the girl online out of vengeance and designed the original Web page to make it look like the girl's own work, Purchas told reporters. He added that the suspect also wrote a site entry impersonating the victim and making her appear promiscuous and "inviting other people to address her sexually."
