The Supreme Court of Canada ruled Thursday that sexually explicit electronic communications sent to minors are not private and can be used in police investigations.

In the case a police officer posed as a child and was sent explicit messages. A meeting was arranged with the defendant, a 32-year-old-man pretending to be 23. The defendant argued that the police officer should have obtained prior judicial authorization to record his online communications as evidence for trial.

The court said that there was “no objectively reasonable expectation of privacy” because the communication was with a child who was a stranger.

In a concurrence, two justices noted that the “screenshots … are simply a copy of the pre-existing written record and not a separate surreptitious permanent record created by the state.” Therefore, the use of screenshots is not a search or seizure.