More than 120 people across Ontario, including 10 in the north, were recently taken into police custody and are facing charges in connection with child pornography. Police say it is just a snapshot of one month's work by internet child exploitation investigators.
The World Wide Web is a major part of our everyday lives.
With access to information and images easier than ever, police are urging the public to be careful with what they share.
"My advice is always to make sure that they know never to share intimate images of themselves or anyone else online, and to never ask for those images. It can be quite dangerous, and really it's almost impossible for the police or any other agency to recover those images later." said Sault Ste. Marie Police Service constable Sonny Spina.
With the increased use of social media, sharing images is extremely easy.
The people CTV News spoke with say they try to limit exposure as much as possible.
"We put a restriction on time and how long she's on her programs. And when it's done, that's it, that's all, it's over with."
"It is getting to be a little much. I think people need to really be careful with what they're putting out there online. I don't want to see my children's lives or my niece's lives put out there for everyone to see. I think it's dangerous."
"With social media now a days, everything is accessible. Someone can copy and paste off the internet, and it's very accessible to anyone. I mean, going forward, and you hear different cases in the news, you're kind of a bit more leery about what you share."
Sault police say they have officers who work on online child exploitation on a daily basis.
With some of the victims being the most vulnerable people, they add it's paramount to follow up on leads as quickly as possible.
“Officers are really good at identifying locations and bringing in other police services when they see increased activity in a certain area. And they're able to work together very, very quickly to identify potential victims, and of course to identify accused persons." said Spina.
27 police agencies across the province coordinated on the recent operation, with 122 people facing 551 charges.
55 victims were identified during the investigations and were referred to community-based resources for assistance.
"Perpetrators of online sexual exploitation often minimize their actions by saying they were 'just looking.' Let me be clear: Anyone who possesses, distributes, accesses or otherwise supports the supply and demand chain for child sexual abuse images are complicit in the sexual exploitation of children." said Staff Sergeant Sharon Hanlon, coordinator of the Provincial Strategy to Protect Children from Sexual Abuse and Exploitation on the Internet.
