A Warkworth man has been sentenced to 12 months home detention for distributing child sexual exploitation material.

The 25-year-old appeared at the North Shore District Court on Wednesday and pleaded guilty to 21 charges of distributing objectionable material.

The Department of Internal Affairs said the material included images and videos depicting the sexual exploitation and abuse of children.

The Department’s Digital Child Exploitation Team opened an investigation after a report from an international law enforcement agency.

The Department said the report indicated the man had been sharing links containing child sexual exploitation material through an online chat.

A search warrant was carried out at his address on May 14, 2024.

The Department said several electronic devices were seized and destroyed.

It said examination of the devices identified 7,853 objectionable files, and that 1,053 child sexual abuse images had been shared to 12 other offenders.

Digital Child Exploitation Team manager Tim Houston said offenders who possess and knowingly share this material present a risk to online and offline communities.

As part of the sentence, the man will be registered as a child sex offender, and the devices used were ordered to be destroyed.

The Department said that in 2024 the team conducted 69 investigations, helped safeguard 14 New Zealand children from harm, and its filtering system blocked over one million attempts to access websites hosting child sexual abuse material.

Get the Hibiscus Coast headlines first.

Corrections, tips, or photos, [email protected]