A year after it launched as Canada's national tipline for reporting the sexual exploitation of children, Cybertip.ca has shut down hundreds of websites and resulted in several arrests.

Cybertip.ca initially ran as a pilot project in Manitoba, then launched across the country last January.

Through the website, people can file a report about potential cases of online child pornography or sexual abuse. Trained analysts follow up on every report and forward information to police.

"We created something with the idea being we were sort of like the 'Neighbourhood Watch' of the internet," said executive director Lianna McDonald.

"We recognized that police could not do this alone. We needed average Canadians to take responsibility and say, 'We're not going to put up with this type of crime.'"

The program logged more than 5,700 reports of child sexual exploitation in the last year, and forwarded 2,258 reports to police.

Based on tips received in the past year, some 700 websites were shut down, and seven arrests were made – and Cybertip.ca officials note those figures do not include tips that were received, but which law-enforcement officials have not yet investigated.

McDonald says it takes less than five minutes to file a report with the program.