A 15-year-old Manitoba male is facing possession of child pornography charges after an eight-year-old Guelph girl was allegedly enticed into sending nude photos of herself over the Internet.

The Guelph Police Service says they received a complaint from the girl's mother that the girl had sent the photos to an older male.

She was reportedly using a chat program downloaded onto her iPod from the Internet.

Guelph Police Sgt. Doug Pflug says "The mom found out, she was checking her daughter's iPod and it's something we would encourage every parent to do…from a victim's side as well as a perpetrator's side."

The suspect's IP address was used to track him to southern Manitoba after a forensic examination of the iPod by Guelph's Technological Crimes/Child Exploitation Unit.

On Friday, March 4, the Manitoba RCMP's Child Exploitation Unit and local police arrested the 15-year-old male in a town outside of Winnipeg and charged him with possession of child pornography.

According to police the girl does not know the offender in this case. It remains unclear whether she will be asked to appear in court.

Experts say an incident like this one could be devastating for both parties involved.

Daniel Moore is with Guelph Family and Children's Services. He says "What's I think about the digital world is that some parents don't know as much about the digital world as the children themselves."

In those cases, Moore adds, parents should try to make themselves more a part of their children's lives.

"They should know as much as they can about who their children are interacting with, both at home, in the community and on the Internet for sure."