It emerged earlier this week that photos of girls who were as young as 14 were being copied from social media and posted on pornographic websites.

The Examiner reported that although the images weren't pornographic in nature, some had been modified.

Further developments have emerged of videos and pictures being taken here in Ireland and uploaded on to pornographic website ‘xHamster’ which has more people logging on every day than both the BBC and CNN and is listed in the top 100 of the world’s most popular websites.

To discuss what people can do to help keep their photos private, Rachel O’Connell who is the CEO of Trust Elevate who offer advice on how to protect yourself online spoke to Newstalk Lunchtime.

She stated: "What we're dealing with here is, actually if you think about it, technically child pornography.

"If I were the Minister Frances Fitzgerald, I would be contacting the police and I would be asking them if there is scope for them to issue an arrest warrant for the owners of xHamster.

"I would also be talking to the internet service providers and saying this company is knowingly hosting child pornography images and therefore, they should be blocked so that people cannot access them.

"The only way you are going to get this company to behave responsibly is to hit them where it hurts, which is their revenue."

She offered this advice: "I would say that they should lobby the Minister to do a bit more about this.

"Be careful about who you connect with online and keep your privacy settings such that it's only people that you trust that you're connected to.

"But really, what's required here is for Government to respond and for law enforcement... to take a firm stance on this."

You can listen to her interview here: