Nude photos of a Halifax-area high school student have been circulated by an online stranger, according to RCMP, who say they were called in to investigate Tuesday.

The student, police said, added someone she did not know to one of her social media accounts. That person then pressured the student to send nude photos of herself to him and she did.

When he asked for more photos, she said no. She refused more times, and finally he sent the pictures she'd shared earlier to her contacts.

"What made this one more extreme than other cases [is] in a lot of cases the person is threatened that if they don't do something their images will be shared," said Cpl. Jennifer Clarke. "In this case, the images actually were shared."

Police wouldn't identify the high school the student attends or the social media platform used. Police were alerted to the incident by a high school administrator.

Sharing photos

RCMP confirmed other students in the teen's contact list received photos and videos.

"What's important for people to know is once a picture is up on the internet, you can never really be fully sure that it's been deleted, no matter how many people have or haven't seen it," Clarke said.

"So we do know the images were shared with people in the victim's contact list."

Clarke said anyone concerned about a message they've received should call police or, alternatively, Cyberscan.

RCMP said people should check their security settings on social media accounts and be cautious when communicating with strangers online — especially when it comes to sharing photos.

Police have not determined the identity of the perpetrator.

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