Following a year-long investigation, six teenagers have been charged in a Bridgewater, N.S. court with distributing intimate images without consent, and possessing and distributing child pornography.
Police in Bridgewater say images of more than 20 teen girls were circulated after allegedly being shared without consent in a Dropbox account.
Bridgewater police chief John Collyer says the case is an important test of the new criminal code provision on intimate images, which allows prosecutions for sharing a wider range of images than traditional child porn laws.
Two 18-year-olds and four 15-year-olds, whose identities are protected under the Youth Criminal Justice Act were charged on Wednesday.
That law was brought in following the death of 17-year-old Rehtaeh Parsons,
She attempted suicide and was taken off life support after a digital photo of what her family says was a sexual assault was circulated among students at her school in Cole Harbour, N.S.
Her death has been attributed to online distribution of photos of an alleged gang rape that occurred 17 months prior to her suicide, in November 2011.
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