A Calgary man is facing 26 charges relating to child pornography and child luring. (CBC)

Police credit a teenage girl with providing information that led to a Calgary man being charged with 23 child pornography and internet luring offences.

Carl Ryan, 27, used a popular social networking site to approach all six of his alleged victims, who ranged in age from 12 to 17, according to a task force made up of RCMP and Calgary police officers.

He was originally arrested on Aug. 12, 2009 and charged with a single count of luring and three counts relating to child pornography involving one victim, police said.

"The young lady that came forward is a very courageous young lady," said Cpl. Kimberley Krasman, a Calgary-based investigator with the integrated child exploitation unit. "Oftentimes when behaviours like this happen to a child online, there's a certain amount of fear to coming forward. You don't want your friends or your family to know what's happened to you online."

Police seized all computing devices from Ryan's home and a forensic analysis revealed five more victims. Police laid an additional 22 charges, which couldn't have happened without the girl stepping forward, said Krasman.

'The internet is a door that we cannot lock so we need to be as vigilant with our children online as … when we send them out to the playground to play.'—Cpl. Kimberley Krasman

A luring charge in connection with a child pornography offence does not necessarily mean a suspect and victim have met each other in person, explained Krasman.

"The suspect will ask the young victims to take images of themselves and send them online, so in effect they're counselling them to commit the making of their own child pornography," she said.

She said one girl met Ryan in person but no alleged offences were committed.

Police did not release the name of the site Ryan used.

"Everybody tells their children … don't talk to strangers, lock the door when you're home alone," said Krasman. "The internet is a door that we cannot lock so we need to be as vigilant with our children online as … when we send them out to the playground to play."

She advised parents and guardians to take the time to sit down and see what their children are doing on the internet.

Ryan made a brief appearance in court Friday morning.

He was released on a number of court conditions that bar him from possessing computers, accessing the internet and having contact with anyone under 16 years of age.