A 23-year-old Christchurch man's been sentenced to more than three years in prison for child sex abuse offences

The US-based National Center for Missing and Exploited Children tipped off Customs to the potential offending.

The man was then found and arrested - later being convicted of possessing, distributing and exporting material which depicted the sexual abuse of children.

Forensics specialists found he'd stored child sexual abuse material on a cloud storage account and shared them on social media via private messages.