Youth are constantly being reminded to never share sexual pictures of themselves to anyone, but if they do, there is support in place to help them deal with the consequences.

This month, the Canadian Centre for Child Protection launched the NeedHelpNow.ca website. The site is designed to empower and support teens who have been negatively impacted by the sharing of sexual pictures and assist the parents of youth in crisis.

Cyberbullying and the sharing of sexual images can seriously impact the trajectory of a teen’s life. Naturally, many youth struggle to come forward and ask for help when managing the onslaught of bullying behaviour from peers when a sexual picture of them is shared and/or posted online.

"Technology is seamlessly integrated into the everything that youth are doing, especially in their relationships and how they communicate with each other," said Noni Classen, Director of education at the Canadian Centre. "We know adolescence is the hallmark of youth experimenting, being impulsive, taking risks and when you combine that with technology these things are going to happen sometimes."

Classen says there things that can be done to take those images off the Internet and the Centre for Child Protection will help them get through it.

The website launch this week was also used to help roll out the #ChangeTheStory - a social media campaign encouraging youth to take control of their narrative by turning messages of hate into messages of hope.