RCMP investigate depiction of Moncton teens on lewd website

The RCMP's Internet Child Exploitation unit is investigating an online photo collection depicting several Moncton-area teenage girls.

Police received complaints when the website started circulating on social media Thursday.

The site has a Russian domain name and appears to be a run-of-the-mill photo hosting site, however it contains many photos of potentially underage girls.

The page is attributed to a user called FACEBOOKWOLF2, and includes lewd sexual comments about the girls' appearance and age such as, "gr8 cleavage," "hot blonde bikini teen," and "SUPERHOT DAUGHTER!"

None of the girls are nude, but concerned parents and teens took to social media to express their concern and alert people on the list. It appears many of their photos were pulled from the Facebook pages of the girls without permission.

RCMP spokesperson Const. Jullie Rogers-Marsh says many complaints have come in from across the province.

"The RCMP investigators have reached out to our Integrated Child Exploitation section and they are assisting in looking at these complaints," she said Thursday.

Because the photos are thought to be of a non-sexual nature, RCMP believe it's not a criminal offence at this point in the investigation.

RCMP issued a news release Friday and advised people to check their privacy settings, pointing out low security on privacy settings means photographs shared are visible to a large number of people who may not be necessarily on a person's contact list.

"Many people may not realize their photos aren't as private as they think," stated Rogers-Marsh in the news release. "It's important that people check and understand the privacy settings on their social media accounts.

"Once information or images have been shared on the internet, it can be very difficult to prevent them from being shared further."

Dalhousie law professor Wayne MacKay, a former chair of the Nova Scotia task force on bullying, says that doesn't make it any less serious.

MacKay feels parents also need to educate their children on responsible technology use, including social media.

"It's like giving a child a car without ever requiring them to learn how to drive."

The photos are no longer available on the site.