A girl who has been the object of a continent-wide child pornography investigation has been found and is reported to be safe.

The young girl, believed to be around the age of 11 or 12, has been located in a foster home in the Pittsburgh area.

The man who police believe responsible for taking sexually explicit photos of the girl is serving a 15-year sentence in a U.S. federal prison -- but no further details about the alleged perpetrator were released.

"All of the investigators are really happy she is safe," Jamie Zuieback, spokeswoman for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, told The Associated Press on Friday.

"This has been a continuing effort to look at all the available resources to try and identify her."

A match was made Thursday in a law enforcement database of child pornography, officials said.

The girl first gained international attention in February when Toronto police released a photo of a hotel room where they believe she'd been assaulted. The girl's image had been digitally removed. Other similarly altered photos included the girl in front of various backgrounds, including an elevator and a fountain.

Toronto tips

Within hours, tips started pouring in. Two of the tipsters, from Toronto, identified the hotel room, which police traced to the Walt Disney resort in Orlando, Fla.

Before the tips from Toronto came in, police knew only that the victim had long blonde hair at one time and likely lived somewhere in southern Canada or the northeastern United States.

Eventually, the Toronto police, the FBI, the Orange County, Fla. sheriff's office and the U.S. National Center for Missing and Exploited Children and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement were all involved in the search.

The girl has been in foster care since 2003, when her adoptive father -- the man believed to have taken the pictures -- was arrested on charges related to trading Internet child porn, said Matt Irwin, detective for the Orange County Sheriff's Office.

"In Florida, based on what we have, he would probably be facing life charges," said Irwin.

"If he is facing something similar to that in Pennsylvania, it may not be worth dragging her through more trial here. But that's something we have time to evaluate."

The girl, originally from Russia, was adopted by the suspect when she was five, Irwin said.

In April, a second photo of a young girl who police believed may have known the victim was released to the media. She was seen on a couch that had been identified in photos of the abuse victim.

Police hoped identifying the one girl would lead them to the victim. Sources told CTV Toronto that the second photo quickly led to further tip, and it turned out that the girl was the victim's neighbour and friend.

"She has been determined not to be the victim of any sexual abuse," said Irwin.

Tracking system

CTV Toronto's John Lancaster reports that the reason investigators weren't aware that the victim has been safe in foster care is that police were working without the victim's name.

"All they had were photos," said Lancaster. "So for the first time ever, by taking this unprecedented step of releasing these photos, their plan worked beautifully."

A Canadian child advocate said, however, that if U.S. authorities shared a new database called CETS, or the Canadian Exploitation Tracking System, the girl may have been found sooner.

"(CETS)allows police forces to be linked, and in their investigation on the Internet, one police force can know exactly what another police force is doing at all times," said David Butt of Beyond Borders.

The young girl came to the police's attention in 2002.

Toronto police, with one of the largest and most sophisticated child pornography units in North America, have been active for four years in trying to identify victims.

Frustrating investigation

Police had been watching the blonde girl appear in a series of pornographic photos since she was approximately nine years old.

About 200 explicit photos of her have circulated on the Internet for at least three years.

They had considered releasing non-pornographic images of her, but ruled it out. They were concerned about privacy violations, but were also worried it could spur her abuser to violent action.

This case also points to a larger problem.

Police believe there are more than 50,000 children worldwide who have been exploited by child pornographers, their images appearing in vile photographs and videos on the Internet. But only about 500 of those kids have been identified.

With files from CTV News, The Canadian Press and The Associated Press